The Minerals Council SA has confirmed social media reports that there is a mounting backlog of exports at South Africa's border posts and ports. The SA Revenue Service admits its network has been experiencing difficulties, but that the 'customs clearance system is up and running' and that it has implemented measures to address the backlog including 'manual procedures', which means doing things the old-fashioned way - by hand.

South Africa's border posts and ports have been snarled up since Thursday last week because of technical issues related to software system upgrades by the Customs division of the South African Revenue Service (SARS), hampering the flow of crucial exports and imports that are a lifeline for a struggling economy.

"The Minerals Council is aware of the difficulties with the border posts and customs, and is working with all our members in conjunction with government departments and SARS to expedite solutions," Allan Seccombe, spokesperson for the Minerals Council SA (MCSA), the main industry body for South Africa's mining sector, told Daily Maverick.

Grain SA, the main industry body for South Africa's grain industry, also confirmed that it was aware of port congestion.

SARS said in response to queries from Daily Maverick that there had been backlogs and intermittent system interruptions but that it had implemented 'manual release procedures' and had carried out more maintenance on its systems since Sunday afternoon. It said its pre-clearance procedures had contained the scale of the logjams.

'Manual release procedures'

"The customs clearance system is up and running. SARS is working with stakeholders on the matter and has implemented manual release procedures to assist with...