The age 60 is the usual retirement time mandated in Eswatini. However, for Eswatini Railways (ESR), which began operations six decades ago, productivity and profitability are about to surge.
South Africa and Mozambique are responsible for the railway system’s existence and continuing success, by providing a vision for a Swazi railway system whose primary purpose is to serve the region rather than focus on the small market of the landlocked country.
Portuguese colonial authorities proposed a railway from Swaziland in 1902 as a way to drum up more business for their investment in a port at Lourenço Marques (Maputo).
They built a line to the Swazi border from the north, terminating at Goba. South Africa wanted Swazi exports for Richards Bay’s port, and built a line to the Swazi border from the east.
However, British colonial authorities then running the Swazi protectorate saw no purpose for rail transport because Swaziland had nothing to export.
Finally, a need for rail arose in the 1960s when the Ngwenya Mine in the country’s western area required a transport system to move its ore to sea.
The country had no highways at the time. Construction began in 1961 on a rail line from Goba, Mozambique, south to a railhead at Swaziland’s then-new industrial centre Matsapha, and on to the mine. King Sobhuza II blew a whistle to set the trains in motion in 1964.
The Mozambique Civil War shut down the rail system in the 1970s. South African Railways (Transnet Freight Rail today) stepped in to finance construction of a link to reach its line at Golela, giving Swaziland access to Durban and Richards Bay in 1978.
As the Mozambique conflict continued, a line was built to Swaziland’s northwest border, which from 1986 allowed South African freight from Phalaborwa to bypass Mozambique and travel by rail through Swaziland en route to Durban and Richards Bay.
In total, ESR operates 301 kilometres of narrow-gauge rail on three lines: its main line, the Goba railway from Matsapha to Mlawula that connects with Mozambique’s CFM line to Maputo; the Komatipoort railway line connecting with Mpumalanga; and the Richards Bay railway line moving eastward.
With the closure of the Ngwenya ore mine in 1980 and only moderate freight moving, originating from Swaziland itself – primarily sugar from the lowveld and garments from Matsapha textile factories – the rail system’s profitability grew to rely on transit traffic.
A dry port was opened in Matsapha in the 1990s to accommodate shipping to and from South Africa and inland countries like Zambia.
A 2021 initiative saw one million tons of coal moved in little more than a year from Mphumalanga to Maputo via road from South Africa to ESR’s Sidvokodvo siding, where it is transferred to rail cars en route to Mozambique.
Looking ahead, transit traffic volumes will double when the Swazilink project begins operations. The joint-venture with Transnet Freight Rail will see a new 146km line from Lothair, South Africa to the Eswatini border, where it will connect to a line under construction that will link up with the existing line. Swazilink will allow rail shipping to travel from Gauteng directly to Maputo via Eswatini.
The new TFR/ESR General Freight Business Corridor will accommodate trains with 200 wagons stretching 2.5km in length, with a system capacity of 12 trains each way per day.
Long-serving chief of ESR, Gideon Mahlalela, who acted as CEO from 1993 to 2010, told Freight News in 1998, when it was Freight and Trading Weekly (FTW): “When it comes to the movement of freight on a large scale in Swaziland, the future is with rail. Rail is more efficient, cheaper and more environmentally friendly.”
His faith in rail has been borne-out by the system’s ongoing expansion.
