Transnet Freight Rail chief executive Siza Mzimela has resigned
Transnet Freight Rail (TFR) chief executive Siza Mzimela has resigned under pressure from the board after the deterioration of freight handling volumes under her leadership over the past three years.
Her resignation comes just a week after Transnet group CEO Portia Derby quit her post under similar pressure.
Mzimela penned a farewell letter to TFR staff on a Transnet letterhead that was disseminated to her team on Thursday morning. In it she highlighted some of its “successes” over the period.
“Arriving at TFR during the height of Covid in April 2020 seems like a distant memory. It’s hard for me to believe that it was just three short years ago when I was received by not more than four people in the TFR office,” she wrote.
“Today, I am happy that, as I leave at the end of October 2023, I had the opportunity to personally meet and engage with so many of you — who comprise over 26 000 hardworking TFR employees — during visits to numerous local depots and far-flung areas like Sishen, Phalaborwa and Komatipoort.”
Mzimela and Derby quit in the wake of Transnet posting a loss of R5.7 billion for the 2022/3 financial year. TFR’s freight handling volumes contributed significantly to the poor performance of the group, dropping from 213 million tonnes in 2018/2019 to 149 million tonnes in the past financial year. The group achieved just 26.3% of its targets.
The Association of Business Chambers of South Africa earlier warned that 36 000 jobs in the mining sector are on the line due to the poor performance of TFR’s rail services to the sector. In addition, more than 80% of the country’s freight is transported by road due to unreliable rail services.
Mzimela said she had joined the division with 25 years of logistics experience in key strategic and executive positions under her belt that she had mostly gained with Transnet “as the mother body”.
“I would have never imagined the wealth of knowledge I would gain from all the committed people of TFR throughout my tenure. Mostly, you have all taught me the art of resilience and the will to wake up every single day, striving to make a difference.
“You continued to demonstrate dedication even when the odds were against you because of your passion for the rail business,” she said.
Mzimela said the people of TFR had continued to “push forward” despite “the seemingly endless litany of legacy challenges, which include lack of tools for peak performance, lack of locomotives, crippling theft and vandalism, as well as the ‘potholes’ in the infrastructure system that force slower movement of trains due to our company’s safety-first ethos”.
She listed her team’s successes over the past three years including:
• The introduction of borderless trains in the Maputo, Northeast Corridor;
• The construction of the Mamathwane Crossing Loop in the Northern Cape ahead of schedule which allowed the introduction of a new manganese service to the Port of East London and
• Repair of the container corridor between Durban and Cato Ridge after the devastating damage caused by floods in KZN.
She said her team had also introduced new players into manganese, to create junior mining participation; simplified structures to ensure efficient performance within the corridors; increased female representation at executive level; improved regional co-operation for development and growth; rebased tariffs with customers as part of reinventing the company for growth and its engineers had been recognised globally.
“I pray that the cry for support to unlock the artery to the heart of this business, locomotives, is finally heard and acted upon. This will result in the heightened delivery that our country, its people and economy so desperately need to thrive,” Mzimela said.
“With solutions to the key impediments mentioned, the current war zone will return to normality and TFR will be fully equipped to truly play its role of circulating the lifeblood of the South African economy.
“I have no doubt that you, the people of TFR will ensure that the company is able to keep up with the fast-changing, more modern world and build it into an even greater business that surpasses its much-referenced glory days,” she said.