ED RICHARDSON EXPECT THE rand to stay strong – but for state logistics group Transnet to help even the playing fields with better and more cost-effective service. That’s the message from Transnet board chairman Bongani Aug Khumalo. Writing in the 2003/2004 Transnet annual report, Khumalo says “while the strength of the currency has been an important contributor to declining inflation and rising gross domestic expenditure, it negatively affected South Africa’s export orientated manufacturing sector. Invariably, this price weakness fed through the supply chain and ultimately also impacted negatively on our margins. Khumalo says Transnet has been “tasked to help make our economy more competitive, inter alia, by reducing the cost of doing business in South Africa. This means that we have to radically improve the quality of our transport infrastructure and services, increase Spoornet’s freight capacity by 30% over the next five years and eliminate bottlenecks and inefficiencies at our ports.
