South African coal export has grown by 700% since the beginning of the geopolitical war between Russia and Ukraine earlier this year. This was revealed last Thursday by Mineral Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe during a debate on the Just Transition in parliament.
“It is worth noting that heavy goods vehicle crashes on that route are now on par with light vehicles. We are concerned that the levels of enforcement are not keeping pace with the growth of the traffic, thereby aggravating the cost to the economy,” said Mbalula at the time. With coal export booming and the transportation industry contributing approximately 6.3% of GDP, hugely dominated by the road sector, perhaps the question that should be asked is whether the country is putting profits before lives.“I guess you can argue that everybody puts profits before lives. Let me give you an example. If the baker can’t sell bread at a profitable price, then he won’t bake break and people will die of hunger.
“I bought a car in 1982, but I continued, for the next three years, to use the train when leaving uMlazi’s Lindokuhle Station to Berea Station because it saved money and there was no violence inside the trains because at the time you had the South African Railway Police being distinct from the regular police. Those police were no-nonsense police and the people understood they could not tamper with railway infrastructure,” recounts Dumisa.
Roodt believes there is a serious need for the country to return to rail transport, which he says will improve the general economy for the country and benefit all.
Stupid question. It's always been like that.
The hundreds of trucks recently were headed to Mozambique!
Utter BS! Coal has been leaving SA forever!!!!!