Joint initiative adds impetus to SA-DRC rail link

Both South Africa’s public and private sectors are playing a major role in establishing a unified railway system on the corridor linking SA and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). According to Minister of Transport, Ben Martins, a joint operating centre is being established in Bulawayo to house all the railway organisations involved – Transnet Freight Rail (TFR), National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ), Zambian Railways, the Congo Railway Company, and Beitbridge-Bulawayo Railway. “The joint planning and business development will allow all the organisations to develop a joint marketing drive that is intended to encourage not only exports from SA but also jointly identify the return cargo that will optimise the use of the same wagons for imports into SA,” he said. Martins added that Southern African Development Community member countries would benefit financially from this rail corridor. The driver behind this latest scheme, according to Andrew Thomas, executive with Grindrod Rail consultancy services, is that TFR has had “great success” with the Maputo Corridor running through Ressano Garcia and linking with Mozambique’s CFM railway. “This has increased volumes significantly,” he added, “and is also overseen by a joint operating committee. They would now like to duplicate this success with this new Northern Corridor.” Grindrod expressed its confidence in the scheme last year, having acquired a 46.69% interest in New Limpopo Bridge Projects Limited (NLP), a Mauritianregistered company with a 56.03% interest in NLPI – whose business is that Beitbridge- Bulawayo railway. NLPI controls a portion of the northsouth railway corridor running between Beitbridge on the SA/ Zimbabwe border and Victoria Falls on the Zimbabwe/Zambia border, through a combination of a railway concession in Zimbabwe and an access agreement with the Zambian Railways. Grindrod has also formed Grindrod NLP Developments Limited – a new joint-venture with the partners in NLP – to identify, develop, implement and operate other logistics infrastructural projects in Africa. These transaction support Grindrod’s Africa growth strategy of investing in infrastructure assets along strategic corridors. According to Thomas, rail is the mode of transport best suited to the movement of bulk cargo – and the historic under-investment in rail, together with the proliferation of large mining projects, supported by general economic growth, has provided a favourable environment for growth in the rail sector in Africa. “We support the TFR initiative,” he said, “because it’s about getting cargo back on to rail from road. And, with the serious road damage caused by heavy trucks, that makes sense.”