The public release of the draft green paper on rail transport and the planned October 24 round-table meeting of all stakeholders to discuss the paper have both been put on hold, with the cabinet not yet having had the paper from the minister of transport, Ben Martins, for signing, according to Jan-David de Villiers, chief director of public transport in the DoT. At the time we talked to De Villiers (November 16), he hoped that this procedure would be conducted this week. Meantime, he added, a round-table meeting would have been pointless, and that has been delayed until the paper is finally signed and sealed for public presentation. A bit of a battle has also been reported to be going on between the DoT and Transnet about what is believed to be part of the content of the draft paper, and that is the future involvement of the private sector in rail operation. At issue was the proposal to split Transnet’s freight business into two entities: a network operator and separate network customer. The DoT apparently made the case that such a system was being implemented worldwide. It is believed that the system would, among other things, allow competing train services to operate on a single track. But, although much of the rail network is unused, Transnet does not appear to be keen on outsourcing any part of what it believes is its exclusive domain. Transnet CEO Brian Molefe has been reported as describing such a move as “disastrous” and felt it would threaten Transnet’s ability to raise capital on the bond markets. Most likely the problem that puts its search for capital at risk is that its income is dominated by the steel line from Sishen to Saldanha and the coal line from Mpumalanga to Richards Bay. It is a fair bet that these two operations are the cash-cows which feed the rest of SA’s rail network – and the private sector getting its paws on them would raise red figures all over Transnet’s balance sheet. It would also appear that the hard-bitten Transnet objections are supported by minister of public enterprises, Malusi Gigaba. Recent press reports have said that he has spoken out aggressively against the notion of private-sector involvement in transport infrastructure – an objection based on the belief that this would undermine the government’s plan for a “developmental state”. Whether his and Transnet’s arguments are heeded, or the DoT rejects them, will only be revealed when the draft green paper is finally put before public scrutiny.
