Africa’s biggest freight rail market is on the cusp of being transformed by private operators, the head of the operator of the continent’s largest rolling-stock fleet said. The South African government is about to publish a so-called rail network statement that will propose rules for private rail participation in the hitherto state-run and operated sector, said James Holley, chief executive officer of Johannesburg-based Traxtion Africa on Tuesday.
That monopoly has been plagued by years of mismanagement and corruption scandals resulting in the ports being some of the world’s least efficient, and coal and iron railings to ports falling to multi-decade lows. Over the past five years the amount of goods and commodities transported by the state-run freight rail system has plunged to about 150 million tons from 226 million tons, the government said in the plan, the Freight Logistics Roadmap.