As South Africa focused on transport in October, Gauteng witnessed what has been labelled the worst road accident involving a freight truck in recent history. Four people were killed and 49 injured on October 14 when a freight truck ploughed into over 20 vehicles on the N12 East near the Voortrekker offramp. This brought sharply into focus the need to address road freight as part of the entire infrastructure plan for transport.
De Buys Scott, the head of infrastructure for KPMG in South Africa, says that an integrated solution to transport infrastructure will alleviate some of the pressure on South African roads. There are a number of projects, articulated as the Strategic Infrastructure Projects (SIPs), championed by the Presidential Infrastructure Co-ordinating Commission (PICC), already underway to address the infrastructure needs of the sector.
“Of all the 18 SIPs identified in the government’s infrastructure programme, the transport sector has received the most investment and is arguably the most advanced in its thinking,” says Scott. “The transport sector has received priority focus in terms of leadership, planning and delivery because our government understands that in the developmental cycle of infrastructure, transport is the most critical aspect. Elsewhere in the world, large-scale infrastructure development plans have failed or succeeded based on the strength of their planning and leadership.”
Transport — the movement of passengers and freight by bus, train, air and ports — is dealt with predominantly in SIP 2 and SIP 7. SIP 2 aims to strengthen the logistics and transport corridor between South Africa’s main industrial hubs; improve access to Durban’s export and import facilities; integrate the Free State Industrial Strategy activities into the corridor; construct a new port in Durban; and build an aerotropolis around OR Tambo International Airport. SIP 7 deals with the integrated urban space and public transport programmes.
According to Scott, the country has already made significant investments in the rail sector. The Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) has undertaken a massive programme to expand and modernise rail service. This will include purchasing 3 600 new coaches in the next 10 years — the largest ever metro rail transaction in the global history of new “rolling stock” replacements — with plans for a possible second tranche of another 3 600 coaches or more.
The majority of the manufacturing for the plan will be localised in South Africa, building an entirely new train infrastructure industry, which should lead to the creation of thousands of jobs. With an estimated cost of more than R120-billion, the Prasa initiative is on track to be the largest infrastructure procurement transaction in South Africa’s history.
In addition to the investment in passenger rail, Transnet has increased its capital expenditure programme from R110-billion to R300-billion, to ensure adequate capacity to meet future demands through investments in rail, ports and pipeline infrastructure. It includes projects such as the expansion at the Waterberg (in Limpopo) coal corridor, the manganese corridor towards Ngqura (in the Eastern Cape) and the Sishen (in the Northern Cape) to Saldanha (in the Western Cape) corridor, which exports iron ore.
In the Free State, there are plans to build a logistics concentrated hub with the capability to process air and rail freight in Harrismith. This will link the Northern Cape, an area rich in resources, to both the Ngqura and Durban ports via the N8.
Transnet Freight Rail chief executive Siyabonga Gama said in a statement: “The new locomotive purchase is part of Transnet’s long-term fleet renewal programme to increase capacity while improving the average age of its fleet. This is in an effort to deliver on the stringent requirements of the market demand strategy, in which Transnet Freight Rail is expected to grow its volumes from the current 207-million tonnes a year to over 350-million tonnes in just six years.”
“Our transport industry is very healthy — the plans are there and we are doing what is needed to aid development,” says Scott. “The blueprints for passenger transport, freight rail transport and road networks are crystal clear. However, some strategic thinking is still required in relation to ports.”
There are plans under development for Durban and Richards Bay. These include the Durban dig-out port, which is to be built on a site 11km away from the existing Durban port, which is also undergoing expansion. The new port will have the capacity to process approximately 9.5-million standard-size containers; this will cost an estimated R75-billion, Scott says. “Ngqura, a freight port just outside Port Elizabeth, has been under development for a number of years and is key to the development of the manganese corridor. However, at some of the other ports, there is still some work to be done.
“The government needs to consider whether to split port ownership and operations,” he says. “Ownership of the capital assets is a strategic imperative for the nation, but a viable option may be to bring in global best practice on a concession basis to run the ports, as the country may not have sufficient skills required to run these operations effectively. To date this has never been considered, but I’m certain that there would be appetite for that type of discussion.”
One of the government’s success stories has been the successful implementation of its strategic plan in building airport infrastructure. “As an outcome of our investment ahead of the 2010 Fifa World Cup, our airports are world-class,” says Scott. “Airports Company South Africa is doing an excellent job in managing these airports.”
But Scott warns that OR Tambo International Airport — the largest passenger and freight airport in the region — is exceptionally busy and has little capacity for further expansion. He says that there have been strong discussions regarding the building of a new industrial airport in the east of Johannesburg towards the Delmas area, and that proposals have been put forward to bring this project closer to procurement. However, the timing of the project is not yet known.
Public transport re-imagined
In relation to public transport as envisaged in SIP 7, significant work is under way on urban transport integration. The integrated urban space and public transport programme deals with the planning and implementation of public transport, human settlement, economic and social infrastructure and location decisions into sustainable urban settlements connected by transport corridors. This will focus on the 12 largest urban centres of the country, including all the metros in South Africa.
Five major bus rapid transport systems are already under way (in the City of Johannesburg, the City of Cape Town, Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality, Rustenburg and the City of Tshwane).
In Tshwane, says Scott, deals are being considered with the taxi industry to participate in the scheme. Exact details are being explored. The City of Tshwane has also established an operating company responsible for building key infrastructure — comprising bus ways, stations, depots, a control centre and terminuses — and has contracted third party operators, including taxis and buses, to fill in any gaps.
Scott says there is still much work to be done to ensure that the transport sector meets the needs of the country and is safe, but he is optimistic about the contribution that the sector will make to South Africa’s economy.
“Infrastructure is a long-term game. South Africa’s investment in its transport infrastructure will have huge economic spin-offs, which will allow the country to begin to focus away from its major cities and start to tend to the sadly neglected provincial and municipal areas where infrastructure investment is urgently needed.
“These tremendous investments will deliver visible benefit to the economy of the country in the next five to 10 years,” says Scott. “The Transnet freight rail investment will take a substantial percentage of the freight traffic off the national highways, which will ease the pressure on those roads; maintenance will be cheaper, and this will create the capacity for the country to deliver on other social infrastructure requirements.”
Ntsiki Mpulo is communications manager at KPMG