When the Southern
Africa Railways Sports
Cultural Organisation
(Sarsco) held its annual games
at the University of Swaziland
the last weekend of July, talk
amongst the railway executives
of the region was about the
host country. The R17-billion
rail link planned from Western
Swaziland through Mpumalanga
Province en route to Gauteng
is the largest regional rail
undertaking since 1976.
400 CEOs, directors and
employees of the national rail
companies that are members of
the Southern African Railway
Association (Sara) attended
the Sarsco games to play
netball, soccer, table tennis and
volleyball, using these exertions
as excuses to network and
share information. That the big
Swaziland-SA rail undertaking
was the centre of conversation
came as no surprise to the host
country.
Stephenson Ngubane,
Acting CEO of Swaziland
Railway, which is partnering
with Transnet Freight Rail on
the ‘Swazilink’, told FTW:
“It is a big project. The early
stages of the process are being
implemented, and the physical
part (of construction) is a year
away, after design and the
financial transactions, but all is
on schedule.”
What he calls “scaling up
for a big project” involves
groundwork for a route that will
eliminate the need for Gauteng
to Maputo rail traffic to skirt
around the bulk of Swaziland
via Komatipoort. Unlike road
freight that is still restricted
from using the more direct route
through Swaziland on a 24/7
basis because of nightly border
post closures, rail traffic will be
able to move at all hours.
“We are dealing with
mountainous terrain (for
the route), and there will be
a number of bridges,” said
Ngubane.
However, there is no reason
at this point to doubt the target
date for the route’s opening will
be met – late 2016 or the first
quarter of 2017.
Before his retirement this
year, long-serving Swaziland
Railway CEO Gideon Mahlalela
said: “I have been working
toward the dream of this
route for years. It will bring
a big boost for rail traffic in
Swaziland because most of that
is transit rail traffic from South
Africa.”
In fact, a “western rail route”
through Swaziland from SA has
been sought since 1882, said
Mahlalela. Swaziland will pony
up R5 billion of the project’s
budget.
New Swazi rail link on track
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