Development of Rail Sector Important for Overall Growth - Alive2green

The declaration goes on to state that women have a place in the development and integration of the
African railways.
It said national, sub-regional and regional strategies should urgently promote railways as one way of
realising the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which have the deadline of 2015.
In particular, these declarations point to the importance of regional railways and SARA as integral parts of
the North-South Corridor at a high-level conference held in Lusaka, Zambia in April 2008.
SARA is an association of railways in the southern African region, and was formed in 1996, after it was
acknowledged that a lobby group is needed to advocate for fair surface transport competition and service
delivery by railway.
But it is a SADC body, and its actions are guided by the SADC Protocol, which consolidated the existence of
SARA, giving effect to the formation of regional associations to facilitative collaboration with other
stakeholders.
The members of SARA are railway operators in Namibia, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Swaziland,
Mozambique, Angola, Zambia, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
But, said Dzawanda, railways in the southern African region and the continent at large are faced with the
plethora of challenges, “whose origins are in a big way historical”, such as civil unrest and the fact that the
building and maintenance of railway systems are very costly.
Railways suffer from lack of investment, and are thus faced with critical capacity challenges. Lack of
investment has also resulted in poor conditions of infrastructure, as well as a shortage of locomotives and
wagons.
And, added Dzawanda, the resource element of railway service delivery should not be ignored, especially in
view of the skills drain with many leaving the continent and no capacity to retrain staff, and the impact of
HIV/AIDS on the sector’s workforce.
Notwithstanding the challenges of the sector, performance of railways is high on SADC’s agenda.
Regional ministers of transport last year discussed the evaluation of railway concessions, transportation of
hazardous materials by rail and approved a handbook on this matter, and considered infrastructure funding
and waived a fuel levy for railways, which was welcomed by the industry.
The ministers also agreed to create railway funds in member countries after years of lobbying from the
industry players.
Such a fund, said Dzawanda, would go a long way to level the playing field between the rail and road
sectors.
“The role of government in rail infrastructure development cannot be understated,” said Dzawanda.
But huge challenges still remain.
As far as infrastructure is concerned, there is a sore lack of investment in rail tracks – in construction and
maintenance – there is a lack of connectivity, which is regarded as the “missing links”, and countries use
different gauges across the region.
In equipment, there is a shortage of locomotives and wagons, and there is a maintenance backlog of these.
The region still has not harmonised its legislation regarding the railway sector and has to contend with
different standards, as well as ownership and operations issues.