SA wants to hand operation of rail, ports to business after $27bn loss

The South African presidency has a plan to reverse the collapse of a state-run ports and freight-rail sector that’s cost the economy at least $26.7 billion since 2010: hand over most of the responsibility for fixing it to the private sector.

The need for South Africa to take action to fix its broken logistics system is urgent. Volumes on the coal-rail line to the export terminal at Richards Bay are at their lowest since 1993, iron-ore railings are at the weakest in a decade and general freight volumes have fallen even further, the authors of the report wrote. South Africa’s container ports are the least efficient in Africa, they said.

That poor performance, which has been blamed on a shortage of locomotives and cable theft, led lobby groups representing miners and businesses in the key port city of Durban to demand that Transnet’s management be removed. Over the past two weeks, the company’s chief executive officer and head of its freight rail division have resigned.

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South African government wants private companies to fix R500-billion rail and ports disasterEven the lucrative coal and iron-ore rail export lines — the poor operation of which is slashing exports by companies including Anglo American and Glencore — may be operated privately, the presidency said.
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