Transnet plans to de-electrify some trains in a bid to avert copper cable theft which has hampered the performance of its rail services.
In a presentation to the mining industry at the Joburg Indaba on Wednesday, Transnet CEO Portia Derby said that in the last 24 hours there were 32 cable theft incidents on Transnet railways, with 5,775m of copper cable lost.
“Because the rail system was designed to be 50/50 diesel-electric, whenever just a metre of cable is cut it affects the system,” Derby said. “That means we are way out it in terms of design times for movement of trains. So a really big project we are undertaking is to de-electrify.”
The poor performance of rail services has severely affected Transnet’s customers including commodity producers who, as a result of not being able to export desired volumes, have been unable to take full advantage of a commodity price boom in the global market.
The de-electrification raises a “humdinger of a problem”, as SA prepares to put its best, green foot forward at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in November.
“You would ideally want to have a system which is the least polluting as possible, but we have a choice — we either have a reliable system or we have an electric system and if we stay with an electric system we know that we will not be able to drive reliability,” Derby said.
Transnet does not have enough diesel locomotives but was working on a solution, she said. The state-owned entity could access other energy sources, such as gas or hydrogen, to fuel its locomotives, she said.
Cable theft is not the only problem facing Transnet, which has huge operational challenges related to lack of investment and maintenance and other inefficiencies.
Transnet’s mining customers expressed their support to work with the state-owned entity, potentially partnering with it.
“We are open and excited about engaging with Transnet, about some form of partnership,” said Themba Mkhwanazi, CEO of Kumba Iron Ore. “We are very much joined at the hip, it’s part and parcel of our value chain.”
Andre Joubert, CEO of the ferrous metals division at African Rainbow Minerals, said Transnet’s performance was making SA uncompetitive. The way forward, he said, is to formulate a public sector partnership — “not just expecting the partner to participate in the funding but also in the operation and management so that we work together on an integrated business model”.
Derby said a number of considerations were behind bringing private participants on board. “Hopefully moving in that direction will ensure that we will finally start to show real progress in the shift from road towards rail. What’s clear is that we are not going to be able to drive that shift on our own.”
The state-owned entity is pursuing plans for private sector participation across the entire Transnet system including chrome and manganese export terminals, she said.
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