South Africa is in desperate need of evidenced-based research to indicate what it should move to rail.
According to Stellenbosch University professor Jan Havenga, this is crucial if the country wants to address any of the transport challenges it currently faces.
And Havenga says the country’s new transport minister, Blade Nzimande, has the potential to disrupt the downward spiral in the competency of the transport ministry.
“However, although I am hopeful, some of the challenges at the Department of Transport are not purely attributable to the political head,” he said. “In the time of Mac Maharaj, two decades ago (who by the way was a fine leader), the department produced a solid policy document called Moving South Africa. It was well researched and served as a potential guiding light for the future. Sadly, since then, very few of the document's recommendations have been implemented.”
Freight transport experts agree that the lack of a logical approach to issues facing transport in the country have led to policy decisions of a dubious nature. While important matters have remained stagnant, several “wild proposals” have been published without any regard for the impact of the country.
“It is exactly these “wild proposals” that Moving South Africa warned about when urging the DoT to make authoritative, evidence-based decisions grounded in proper research,” said Havenga. “The DoT simply does not have the research to make the necessary decisions.”
He said this was especially clear when looking at the road to rail debate. While some felt government was pushing a strategy to move freight to rail regardless, research would go a long way in delivering a solid solution.
“The question is what freight should be moved to rail,” said Havenga. “It may not be much more than 50 million tons of the current 200 million tons long-haul corridor-based freight traffic. But that 50 million tons could have a major impact on South Africa’s logistics costs if well planned and executed in cooperation with road.
The DoT is currently not facilitating this switch – simply having a strategic statement regarding a modal shift is not enough and will allow individual stakeholders to develop disparate ideas regarding the implementation of such a modal shift.”
Instead, said Havenga, the DoT’s strategy development and subsequent execution should be based on market intelligence culminating in cost calculations that provide solid evidencebased trade-offs for the chosen strategies.
“The DoT, 20 years after Moving South Africa, still does not invest in maintaining such market intelligence,” concluded Havenga.\
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Rules of Origin can determine whether it is more profitable for an agribusiness to establish a processing plant in a particular country. – Agbiz
