The DA challenges President Ramaphosa to retract and correct his speech at Monday’s Transport Conference. The President has mistakenly endorsed Transnet to keep its stranglehold on managing and maintaining South Africa’s rail network. Transnet is a failed, broken entity that can never improve our national rail network.
Ramaphosa himself admitted that neighbouring countries are investing heavily in modern rail and port infrastructure to drive economic growth. Yet at home, the ANC’s ideological obsession with state control keeps our rail system dysfunctional and outdated.
South Africa needs privately concessioned management and maintenance of the rail network , not just private trains on Transnet’s old and broken tracks. That does not and will not go far enough. Transnet loses money every year and is totally reliant on government support just to implement basic maintenance. It can only borrow to invest because the taxpayer guaranteed a further nearly R100 billion of its debt last year. This is not the entity that will save the South African rail system.
While the state-controlled railways collapsed from 2015 onwards, with Prasa losing 375 million trips by 2020, the only fully-concessioned railway in South Africa, the Gautrain, had constant passenger numbers. Improvements in Transnet track over the past five years have mostly come where the private sector is involved in procuring parts and overseeing progress.
Our country should envision private concessioned companies that are allowed to invest in rail tracks, cables, signalling, where they bring innovation, technology and private security expertise to our rail network so that it recovers faster and works more efficiently.
The consequences of Transnet’s failures are clear: we export less and at higher prices, ruining our ability to compete. South African households and businesses end up paying more for their goods because of increased logistics costs. In the end, this constrains our economic growth and stifles employment. Continuing to centralise control in a failing entity will only deepen this crisis.
The DA reiterates that reforming rail is not optional; it is essential. The President must correct his position and commit to a credible path that breaks Transnet’s monopoly and opens the rail network to meaningful private sector participation.