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The fifth Africa Supply Chain Excellence Awards drew 106 entries across 11 categories in Johannesburg on 19 August, and almost none of the winners won on technology that did not already exist.
Business Insights
27 August 2026 • 5 min read
A digital marketplace linking farmers to buyers. Voice-directed picking tied to electronic proof of delivery. Predictive maintenance built on operational data an operator already had. The 2026 winners were judged on the scale of the problem, the quality of the solution and its measurable impact — and the measurable impact is where most SADC operators are losing.
The eFama app took the Technology and Information Systems category and the newly named Garry Marshall Award for Supply Chain Excellence, for a marketplace connecting farmers directly with commercial buyers to cut out intermediation and reduce waste. Digistics received a Platinum Award for End-to-End Supply Chain Excellence, built on voice-directed warehouse technology integrated with its warehouse management system and electronic proof of delivery, plus transport modelling and route optimisation to lift fleet utilisation.
In Transport — All Modes and Intermodal, the RNR app and Avemel Logistics shared Gold: RNR for using operational data and predictive analytics to help transport operators spot recurring faults and plan maintenance, Avemel for integrated logistics and specialist transport across Southern Africa. Inhance Supply Chain Solutions appeared twice, with Tiger Brands for an integrated supply chain control tower spanning planning, logistics, warehousing and customer service, and with SPAR for the SPAR2U online grocery fulfilment solution. ABF Sugar won Innovation and Change Management for an outbound logistics programme covering Malawi, Zambia, Tanzania and South Africa.
Measured, not claimed: Nebula Group and Clothes to Good were recognised for diverting more than 224,000 textile and footwear items, weighing over 55 tonnes, from landfill — while DP World's Port of Dakar entry cited trade contributions equivalent to 3.8% of Senegal's GDP, 3.1% of national employment and 3.5% of national tax revenues. (Source: Africa Supply Chain Excellence Awards, August 2026)
Read the entries together and a pattern emerges that has nothing to do with the technology on display. Voice picking, control towers, route optimisation and predictive maintenance are all mature products available to any operator with a purchase order. What separated the winners was that each could state, in numbers, what changed after implementation — inventory accuracy, warehouse productivity, traceability, fuel consumed, kilometres avoided, items diverted.
That is the harder half of the work, and it is the half most regional operators skip. Buying a telematics platform or a warehouse management system is a procurement decision that takes a quarter. Establishing a credible baseline before implementation, holding the measurement discipline through the disruption of go-live, and being able to defend the delta afterwards is an operating decision that takes years of habit. ASCEA director Liesl de Wet noted that entries were assessed on the scale and complexity of the challenge, the quality of the solution and its measurable impact — three tests, and only one of them is about the tool.
Southern African operators are heading into a period where the external environment supplies the excuses: port delays, border pre-clearance changes, tariff walls, tight air capacity and rising warehouse rentals. In that environment, the ability to demonstrate what your operation contributed — separate from what the market did to it — becomes a commercial asset rather than an administrative nicety.
This is the same argument that keeps surfacing in different guises across the industry. Shippers running tenders increasingly ask for evidence rather than assurances. Insurers price risk off documented process. Financiers assessing a fleet replacement want utilisation history, not a narrative. As Newlyn Group chief executive Rajendra Balmakhun put it, "innovation matters, but ultimately it is execution that moves economies forward." For a twenty-truck operator in Windhoek or Ndola, the practical translation is simpler: the competitor who can prove a 4% fuel improvement will win the contract from the one who says they run a tight ship.
Pick one number that matters to your customers — on-time delivery, damage rate, turnaround time, litres per hundred kilometres — and start measuring it properly this month, before you buy anything. A baseline you can defend is worth more in your next tender than a platform you cannot quantify. And note where the winning entries clustered: cold chain, agricultural market access, warehouse visibility and cross-border outbound logistics are exactly the gaps in the regional supply chain, which is another way of saying they are where the work is.
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Visit Laaimylorrie.com| About the Author | |
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Andre Klynsmith Entrepreneur & Technology Enthusiast Andre's expertise spans technology, blockchain, transport, and logistics -- with a passion for innovation and driving positive change across industries. |
| Source: Bizcommunity — 2026 Africa supply chain awards spotlight logistics innovation View source › | 26 August 2026 |
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