Francois Nortje, director of Distribution Junxion at Port of Gauteng – a large container depot on the Durban/Johannesburg artery with 2,2km of rail frontage – says the national interest demands that SA’s transport state-owned enterprise be broken into much smaller pieces and urgently privatised. He notes government’s plan to introduce third parties using the rail network will not fix the issue as potentially serious participants are concerned at the risks involved. Nortje, who has a vested interest in seeing the national rail infrastructure become more efficiently utilised, explains in this podcast why Transnet’s problems will continue to multiply, arguing that losses at the SOE will keep growing as it has become too big to be properly managed. Among the recent examples he uses to argue his case is the environmental damage caused by a lack of Transnet oversight on fixing sections – and the affected geography – in places where organised criminals have pillaged by drilling into the Durban to Johannesburg fuel pipeline. – Alec Hogg
Francois Nortje on whether the government can deliver on the promise to fix the struggling SOE
I don’t think it is up to government. It’s still a big question: how much money are you going to have to invest? And is it really going to work? You put money into building a terminal, buying the trains, then Transnet falls off the wagon and you’re still running it on Transnet’s railway lines. The guys looking at it are nervous. There are big decisions that have be made. It’s a lot of money to invest and they have seen this and spoken to us about it. Durban harbour is also going to have some sort of privatisation or joint venture. So, the big boys are looking at it.
They are nervous about whether the government is going to have an open hand and allow freedom; let the private enterprise run it entirely from A to B. They would be much happier if that line gets privatised and some private guys buy it as it will be out of government hands. But they are nervous about the sort of 50/50 approach. At least the blood is flowing there. There are enquiries about the Port of Gauteng. On Friday, we had a plane flying up and down along the railway line, on the provincial road and on the farms. So, somebody is surveying and there are agents who are interested. It was quite quiet under Covid-19 but the pages [are turning] and there’s some blood flowing, so it is a relief.
On Distribution Junxion at Port of Gauteng becoming a more efficient container depot if the railway lines run again
We can put an efficient terminal there to offload stuff quickly and cost-effectively. I think we will become the number one container in southern Africa if it works. We wouldn’t have to transport everything by road. The minerals can come to that area and loaded into the container. There is 2.2km of flat land. If you have a blank canvas, you can design something that works very productively. Two of the other three boundaries are provincial roads and the national road is just down the road. The petrol pipe, as well as the data pipe are there. There are a lot of possibilities.
On car trains now taking a detour route as a result of stolen cables
I don’t know why they could not fix that link because they also steal the cables next to us. Once they stole it twice in one week; just after they replaced it, they stole it again. They [keep watch on] the line now. If it gets stolen or cut, the train driver can see this, but it gets fixed the same day or night and the trains can run again. I don’t know why the trains don’t come via Port of Gauteng to Kaalfontein as it is the shortest route. I drove to Kaalfontein and they told me it does the detour and it seems it is still using that route. Before lockdown, we used to get six to 10 container in October in each direction. Now there are two; a third of what it used to be. The N3 is busier so it’s not as if we import or export less. It’s just that Transnet has lost two-thirds of the market share of containers since the start of Covid-19 … in two years. They always used to make a loss on that line because they had to subsidise it from 2014 onwards when they angered the truck guys and the truckers started competing. Currently, it must be a financial disaster for them.
Read also:
- Eye-watering and systematic looting at Transnet – DA’s Ghaleb Cachalia
- Former Transnet exec Tau Morwe on SA’s rail disaster: “Bring back the Railway Police”
- Transnet looking to the private sector is a step in the right direction – Francois Nortje
