South African Business is an annual guide to business and investment in South Africa. Published by Global Africa Network Media in Cape Town, the 2016 edition is in its fourth year of publication.
The publication provides up-to-date information and analyses of the country's key economic sectors, as well as detailed economic overviews of each of the nine provinces in South Africa.
OVERVIEW Transport
OVERVIEW Transport South Africa is spending heavily on transport infrastructure. Economic Development Minister Ebrahim Patel has announced 17 major Strategic Infrastructure Projects in a variety of sectors. Transport is among the most important of these. Transnet is the state-owned transport and logistics company responsible for most of South Africa’s rail network, rail freight, ports, port terminals and South Africa’s fuel and gas pipelines. It will spend R300-billion across its five divisions in the period to 2019. In terms of the national Public Transport Strategy, priority rail corridors and bus rapid transit (BRT) systems are being introduced in all of the country’s major cities. The Maputo Development Corridor is Africa’s most advanced spatial development initiative. Run by the Maputo Development Corridor Logistics Initiative (MCLI), the corridor runs from just outside Pretoria in Gauteng, to Maputo in Mozambique. The Harrismith Logistics Hub (HLH) on the N3 is intended as an inland port that can handle cargo containers and shift cargo from road to rail, reducing congestion and costs. The volume of cargo passing through Harrismith is expected to increase by 25% per annum for the next seven years. South Africa’s ports are covered in the maritime section of this publication. Rail Grain tonnages carried by Transnet Freight Rail (TFR) will almost double in the years to 2019. The assets of TFR’s new Container and Automotive Business (CAB) unit have been ring-fenced. The CAB has been created because of the importance of the Johannesburg-Durban line. TFR has a 20 953km network – about 80% of African infrastructure – with the potential to transport huge volumes. Transnet Freight Rail intends to increase the amount of freight it carries from 200-million tons to 300-million tons. A new line to carry coal from the inland to the coast through Swaziland is being investigated. Some private companies such as Rail Road Logistics Grindrod and Sheltam operate rail systems in the gold-producing areas of the Free State and Gauteng. At the National Assembly Committee address in March of this year, the Department of Transport & Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa addressed challenges related to the rail & road netowrk systems. Lucky Montana, CEO of PRASA, said PRASA focused on public transport and the National Development Plan (NDP). It was the implementing arm of the National Department of Transport, providing transport via road and railway. As a government entity, the initiatives for PRASA were driven by policies and transport strategy. The rail sector took up 80% of the business of PRASA, mainly through Metrorail. They had a few bus services, including Translux and City to City. They also had a property division. He provided statistics highlighting the work of PRASA. It had 22 300km of rail network, 4 638 metro coaches, 550 million trips a year for Metrorail passengers, 16 500 employees, 589 stations, and assets of R36 billion. The biggest challenges for PRASA were its old and dilapidated railway infrastructure, long queues, overcrowding and unreliable trains. People could lose their bread and butter if they were late for job opportunities because of late trains. Line, train and signal capacity were limited. Most of SOUTH AFRICAN BUSINESS 2016 106
