Andrew Watson: The 'most influential' black footballer for decades lost to history

Image
  By Andrew Aloia BBC Sport Last updated on 11 October 2021 11 October 2021 . From the section Football Watson was a trailblazer who helped transform how football was played There are two murals of black footballers facing one another across an alleyway in Glasgow. One helped shape football as we know it, the other is Pele. Andrew Watson captained Scotland to a 6-1 win over England on his debut in 1881. He was a pioneer, the world's first black international, but for more than a century the significance of his achievements went unrecognised. Research conducted over the past three decades has left us with some biographical details: a man descended of slaves and of those who enslaved them, born in Guyana, raised to become an English gentleman and famed as one of Scottish football's first icons. And yet today, 100 years on from his death aged 64, Watson remains something of an enigma, the picture built around him a fractured one. His grainy, faded, sepia image evokes many differen

Shipping containers can go from Maputo to JHB in a day via new Komatipoort dry port

 

accreditation
0:00
play article
SUBSCRIBERS CAN LISTEN TO THIS ARTICLE
(Getty)
(Getty)

A new inland transit facility between SA and Mozambique could slash transport times between the Maputo port and the region’s industrial and business hub.

DP World’s new dry port depot in Komatipoort, a town on SA's eastern border with Mozambique, operates as a bonded container facility, allowing shippers to clear customs quicker when they arrive from the Maputo port that’s a 100-kilometer (62-mile) drive away. That way, a container can reach Gauteng and SA's financial hub, Johannesburg, and capital, Pretoria, within a day of it arriving in Maputo, the Dubai-based port operator said.

Durban harbor, which handles 69% of South Africa’s maritime imports, has struggled to meet demand and cut transit times, with inbound containers spending an average of three days in the port, and those for export almost double that time.

The country plans to invest R100 billion over the next decade to increase Durban’s container handling capacity to more than 11 million units a year from 2.9 million units, President Cyril Ramaphosa said in April.

DP World’s Maputo container terminal is much smaller, with expansion underway to increase capacity to one million units a year. The company has spent $100 million expanding capacity over the last five years, and will invest another $130 million.

The company also plans to expand the Komatipoort dry port depot and build rail infrastructure that will allow it to transport containers by train from Maputo into South Africa within a year or two. That would reduce risks of shipments getting snared in congestion at the border, where queues of trucks waiting to cross can stretch for more than 20 kilometers. The expansion at the Komatipoort facility will cost R185 million, DP World said.

-With assistance from Jeremy Diamond.

We live in a world where facts and fiction get blurred
In times of uncertainty you need journalism you can trust. For only R75 per month, you have access to a world of in-depth analyses, investigative journalism, top opinions and a range of features. Journalism strengthens democracy. Invest in the future today.
Subscribe to News24

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Andrew Watson: The 'most influential' black footballer for decades lost to history

Are there any planets outside of our solar system?

If everyone on Earth sat in the ocean at once, how much would sea level rise?