Overcoming SA’s Railroad Blues

The Richards Bay Coal Terminal (RBCT) last year exported its lowest volume of coal since 1996. In exporting 58.72-million tons of coal, RBCT was 11-million tons down on what it achieved in 2020 and 18-million tons down on its 77-million-ton budget for the 2021 year. Cable theft has been a significant matter in terms of what the coal line has been dealt with, and we’ve seen that on a daily, weekly basis throughout the course of last year. Loco availability has been a challenge,” said RBCT CEO Alan Waller. Its no surprise that the Zondo report figured Transnet as the epicentre of State Capture for the better part of a decade and that we are now seeing its effects manifest in such a costly manner. Coal prices are soaring and yet here we are losing billions in export revenue because of the dysfunctional state of our rail network. So how do we turn things around? Micahel Avery is joined by James Holley, CEO: Traxtion and Thami Gwala, CEO and Founder: SAFreight Logistics, SAFLOG