Operations at Spoornet are ”settling down” and the rail utility is on track with its planned improvements, Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin said on Monday.
Speaking at Spoornet’s offices in Johannesburg, he told journalists that Spoornet was moving forward after years of under-investment.
”This is changing. We are beginning to see more clearly where we want to take Spoornet.”
Erwin said more public private partnerships — such as one recently signed with Khumba Resources — would not only help the transport utility out of the red, but would also improve infrastructure and efficiency at the parastatal.
”We would look for partnerships with all our big customers,” he said.
Khumba needed an improved rail service from its Sishen iron ore mine, so it could increase its production. To this end it would be helping to buy 69 new electric locomotives, funding improvements in infrastructure, and upgrading the rail yards, acting CEO of Spoornet Siyabonga Gama explained at the briefing.
He said there were more public private partnerships in the pipeline, which would mostly involve the purchase of new locomotives, but he could not give details.
Asked whether these sorts of partnerships would do anything to improve efficiency in the rail service, Gama said fixing Spoornet’s infrastructure would go a long way towards getting rid of delays on the lines.
”Trains are late because they break down, or there are faults on the railway lines. We need new equipment,” he said.
However, Ravi Nair, general manager of the National Operations Centre said ailing infrastructure was not the only cause of delays.
”A train driver arriving late to work can cause just as much damage.”
He was sure there was a lot that could be done to improve the running of operations.
Nair has recently been cleared of ”anything untoward” and is back at his post. He was suspended last year while the company investigated undisclosed allegations about him.
”We are very happy with the work he is doing,” Erwin said.
Gama said he was confident Spoornet could expand at a fast enough rate to fulfil its promises to customers such as iron ore miner Assmang.
Assmang hopes to triple its production of iron by 2010, but is dependent on Spoornet for the transport of this.
In the next year Spoornet would focus on five key areas of improvement, so as not to get bogged down in ”everything that needs to be done,” Gama said.
This would be improving the predictability of the railway service, decreasing costs, improving its safety standards, focusing on training and technology, and increasing efficiencies.
”We want to do more with less,” he said.
Gama was appointed acting CEO after Dolly Mokgatle resigned early this year. Erwin said he had no information about whether he would be appointed to the vacant position. ”You will have to ask Transnet about that”.
Erwin is undertaking a three-day tour of Transnet operations throughout the country. He will also visit the National Ports Authority and South African Airways in the next few days. – Sapa