Transnet remains mum on partnership deals

ALAN PEAT
ALTHOUGH THEY are currently discussing a public/private partnership on the Sishen-Saldanha iron ore rail line presently run by Spoornet, Transnet has none others in the pipeline that it is ready to make public.
According to John Dludlu, media spokesman for the parastatal transport network, although there are other similar partnership deals on the cards and Transnet is “very excited about the concept”, there is nothing on which he can elaborate at the moment.
“We are big on strategic partnerships with some of our major clients,” he told FTW, “rather than them just buying services from us.
“And we are talking to quite a few people.”
But, quoting minister of public enterprises, Alec Erwin, Dludlu added that there were “no detailed announcements” to be made on the departmental public-private partnership programme. Each would be taken on a “case-to-case basis”, and only be revealed once they began to crystallise.
However, there is one hint of what is to come – certainly in Spoornet’s direction.
Acting CE, Siyabonga Gama, has told the press that he hopes to announce plans for the railways’ CoalLink service by mid-May – this line carrying coal exports from Mpumalanga to the Richards Bay coal terminal (RBCT).