Maputo | Thursday
SOUTH Africa and Mozambique have signed an accord allowing South Africa’s public railways Spoornet to run its trains from their border to the port of Mozambique’s capital, a move intended to boost growth for both countries.
“This is a major development with (economic) implications for our region as a whole,” South African Public Enterprises Minister Jeff Radebe said at the signing ceremony in the Mozambican capital Maputo on Wednesday.
Mozambican Transport Minister Thomas Salamao said the agreement marked the completion of projects that were part of the Maputo Development Corridor, a plan for upgrading the infrastructure, economy and living conditions for people in northeastern South Africa and southern Mozambique.
Mozambique’s decision to privatise the railway from its border to Maputo, in the form of a 15-year concession to a Spoornet-led consortium, will be followed soon by the privatisation of its port, transport officials said.
Spoornet will pay the Mozambican authorities an estimated $67,7-million for the railroad concession and the European-funded Mozambique Port Development Company will invest 61-million dollars in the port.
In the five years up to 2000, foreign direct investment in Mozambique amounted to slightly under four billion dollars.
South Africa’s High Commissioner to Mozambique Jesse Duarte said: “This rail link to the port is very profitable and the potential for expansion is enormous.”
Rui Fonseca, president of Mozambique ports and railways CFM, declared that the export and import tonnage, at 3,2-million tonnes last year, would soar as soon as the railway had expanded its capacity.
“The potential traffic could jump from 3,2 to five million tonnes immediately and we expect it to reach 15-million tonnes in eight years,” he said.
But first the consortium needs to invest some R200-million ($17,2-million) to restore the railway line to the standard of the Spoornet network in South Africa.
The railway, offering access deep into southern Africa from the Indian Ocean, was badly run down during Mozambique’s brutal civil war between independence in 1975 and democratic elections in 1994.
Crossing the border into Mozambique earlier Wednesday, the need for rehabilitation was evident, with goats grazing on neglected and worn tracks.
By April this year, the Ressano Garcia Railway Consortium — in which Spoornet and its partners control 51% and CFM 49% — is expected to take over operations on the line. – AFP
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