THE THREE as yet unprivatised railway lines into Mozambique are still up for tender, according to an FTW Mozambique source.
These are the corridors joining Gauteng and Maputo (the Komatipoort/Ressano Garcia line), Swaziland-Maputo (Goba Line) and Zimbabwe-Maputo (Limpopo Line).
This follows the two-year-old decision by CFM (Mozambique's railway and harbours authority) to concession out all the country's rail operations.
The Nacala line has already been taken over by an American/Rennies consortium, but the other three main lines are still in mid-air as regards operational ownership.
At this time last year, it was believed that a Spoornet-led consortium would be taking over the SA-Mozambique line. But this was vetoed at the last minute by CFM. The reason, according to our source, was that Spoornet's tender on the 88-kilometre line was based on a low annual rent, plus a large share of the profit.
But CFM wanted things the other way round, and the two railway bodies fell out over the idea. Since then, silence.
It would currently appear that the preferred bidder for the other two lines is a Portuguese grouping called Consortium 2000 - who are also believed to be tendering for the operation of the marshalling yards and workshop in Maputo.
But nothing has yet been formally signed.
The feeling about the SA line, said the FTW source, is that the Mozambican authorities might possibly be heading for a face-saving exercise - and hoping to get Spoornet back-in-the-fold.
However, like everything else about CFM's privatisation plans (including that of the harbour, where Mersey Ports and harbours is due to start operations in June), any hard information on whether the preferred bidders' offers have actually been finalised in print is difficult to get. So everything about the rail lines is still more speculation than actuality.
Meantime, the lines have been facing another, more natural, hazard.
The cyclonic rains have flooded much of southern Mozambique, and all three lines have suffered from washaways. Latest reports are that the SA-Maputo line should soon be back to working condition. The Goba Line was still being worked on at time of writing, but hopes were that it would be re-opened well before the middle of the month.
For the 400 kilometre Limpopo Line from Zimbabwe, meanwhile, the FTW source described it's re-opening as God knows.
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