Transnet is looking for partners
to help it fund and build port
infrastructure but won’t give up
the state monopoly in the rail
and maritime sectors.
Karl Socikwa, CEO of
Transnet Port Terminals, told
FTW that Transnet was looking
for “partnerships to increase
spend”.
A public private partnership
is being considered for the
upgrade of the grain elevator in
East London.
Cleopatra Siceka, acting CEO
of Transnet Freight Rail, said
that there was a need for “public
and private partnerships to
enhance development”.
Any partnerships must
support broader economic
transformation, they said. The
organisation is committed to
using its spending power to
leverage transformation.
It will insource services
where it does not believe that
there has been sufficient
transformation.
An example cited by Transnet
National Ports Authority chief
executive Tau Morwe is the
provision of helicopter pilot
services in KwaZulu-Natal.
Because the service provider
had not trained a single black
pilot in 17 years it was decided
not to renew the contract, but
for Transnet to train up its own
pilots.
They should be operational
within the next two years.
“We are now training more
helicopter pilots than SAA
– not that we see ourselves
as being in competition with
SAA,” he said.
Transnet “focuses on
maximising expenditure with
those suppliers who have the
most optimal combination
of technological capability,
price and BBBEE status, thus
empowering less-advantaged
suppliers,” he said.
But Transnet is not keen on
competition.
Morwe said there was a need
for a state monopoly in the rail
and maritime sectors in order to
support growth in the country
and region.
Socikwa listed one of the
future requirements as “the
ability of the state to retain
strategic control of the network
in order to lead and direct
infrastructure investment and
the development of the supplier
industry”.
CAPTION
The Port of Durban ... Transnet is not keen on competition.
