The South African government remains committed to reinvigorating the logistics sector as an enabler of economic prosperity, and its performance has already shown modest improvement.
This is according to Transport Minister Barbara Creecy speaking on Friday during the launch of a new World Bank report titled: “Driving Inclusive Growth in South Africa: Quick Wins with Competitive Markets and Efficient Institutions".
“Government has established the National Logistics Crisis Committee [NLCC] … comprising representatives from the Presidency, various government departments and the private sector,” Creecy said.
“Its work includes securing strategic logistics corridors, handling commodities essential to the export market and economic growth; addressing backlogs and congestion at strategic border crossings; combatting congestion in key national highway corridors such as the N1 and N3; as well as interventions to combat cable theft and maintenance backlogs at Transnet.”
Creecy added that this collaboration had already produced “modest improvements in our logistics performance”.
The department and Transnet have set a target of moving at least 250 million tonnes of freight on the Transnet network by the year 2030, up from 150 million tonnes in the 2023/24 financial year.
She said the rejuvenation of the rail sector was a key objective, which began with the Cabinet’s approval of the White Paper on National Rail Policy in March 2022.
“The rail policy introduces structural reforms in the sector that are intended to enable private sector investment, optimal utilisation of the rail network, and effective economic regulation of rail that will facilitate equitable access to the rail network and ensure that it is properly managed.”
“As part of this process, a Private Sector Participation (PSP) Unit is being established by the department in collaboration with the Development Bank of Southern Africa. Once established, this unit will help direct and coordinate private sector investments in priority rail projects requiring capital investment,” she said.
Her department is in the process of issuing Requests for Information “regarding potential investment in the rail and port sector”.
“This serves to share information with the public regarding possible PSP projects, but also to allow the department, and by extension Transnet, to gather information on projects with the potential for third-party involvement,” she said.
“I want to emphasise again that throughout this process all rail and port infrastructure will remain under the government’s ownership. We are also in the process of consulting with organised labour regarding the details of our freight logistics roadmap.
“We cannot continue with the status quo, where derailments and port blockages cost our economy billions of rands, and thousands of jobs in all sectors of our economy are at risk.”
However, she said Transnet’s recovery plan, which includes the replacement of crucial port infrastructure and collaboration with the logistics sector, had already led to some improvement in efficiency.
“The establishment of war rooms for specific corridors and commodities has allowed Transnet and the private sector to collaborate and share expertise and address challenges such as derailments and unplanned maintenance,” Creecy said.
“This has resulted in improvements we are seeing in our ports which have cut down on ship waiting times and queuing times for trucks.”
She added that the measures being implemented would “enable us to meet the targets that we set for the logistics sector based on pre-pandemic figures”.
“Transnet and the department have set the goal of 250 million tonnes of freight per year moving on the Transnet network by 2030. Transnet achieved 150 million tonnes of freight per year during the 2023/ 2024 financial year. At our ports, the target is to improve gross crane moves per hour from the 2024 average of 16 to 30 by 2030,” she said.
However, she pointed out that the “ambitious targets” could not be achieved by the existing Transnet system and would require significant private and public investments in infrastructure, rolling stock and digital systems.
“This can only be achieved through a partnership between government and the private sector, where technical knowledge, experience, [the] world’s best practice and funding can be shared.” – SAnews.gov.za
