Zambia’s decision to pass a law to revive its rail sector is being closely monitored by the South African government, according to Msondezi Futshane, acting deputy director-general for road transport at the DoT.
The landlocked southern African mining country in January this year told mining firms and other bulk cargo companies that at least 30% of freight had to be transported by rail. This has been seen as an attempt to address the huge modal imbalance in the country. The Zambian government believes a mandatory quota will revive the rail sector.
“South African freight operators must not see this as a development to hinder their operations in Zambia but should look at it as step to resuscitate rail in the road-rail balancing act,” said Futshane.
Zambia’s rail lines currently have a market share of about 5% with the remainder handled by road transport. This huge imbalance between the use of road and rail has, according to the Zambian government, led to the underperformance of the railways.
The excessive use of road transport for exports such as copper, sugar and cement on the other hand is damaging roads and increasing maintenance costs. Another consequence of the imbalance is a bad road safety profile as accidents have increased.
“The quota system is expected to reduce the cost of doing business because railway transport is seen to be cheaper than road haulage,” said Futshane. “However, careful attention would need to be paid to how the Zambian government will deal with transit goods affected by this quota system. It is our view that given the SADC region’s landscape, where 40% of the countries are landlocked, with very few inland navigable waterways and low connectivity in the rail transport system, cross-border road transport is instrumental in enabling countries to connect, trade and enhance social cohesion between our country and the rest of the region.”
He said the dominance of heavy cross-border road transport over other modes was likely to continue for at least the foreseeable future.
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Careful attention needs to be taken on how the Zambian government will deal with transit goods affected by this quota system. – Msondezi Futshane
