Transnet Freight Rail (TFR) aims to issue a tender by next month for the procurement of ammunition, including handguns and longer range weapons, for its internal security personnel amid growing frustration over the growth of cable theft and vandalism of its infrastructure.
Marius Bennett, GM for safety and security at TFR, says this is aimed at curbing criminality and theft. Security-related incidents have cost the state-owned rail operator R3.7bn in revenue for the 2022/23 financial year.
“The guys [Transnet security] are in [firearm and peace officer] training now and we are busy preparing the tender,” Bennett told Business Day on Friday.
“We are planning on rolling it out in the current financial year which [runs till] end-March 2024.”
TFR makes use of internal and external security personnel to protect and patrol around 30,400km of its railways which are essential to transport SA’s imports and exports.
However, its internal security personnel have limited authority to carry ammunition. In 2022, Transnet’s security officers were granted peace officer status by justice & correctional services minister Ronald Lamola.
As peace officers, they are able to make arrests, assist the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) with prosecutions, search premises, facilities and people, and ensure that suspects are charged correctly.
“The issue of armed or unarmed peace officers is dependent on the needs of the employer. For example, if TFR wants its peace officers deployed along the [railway] lines armed, then they shall be armed ... peace officer is just a status offered by a tool of trade,” Bennett said.
Transnet says that over the past five years there has been a 179% increase in security-related incidents including theft of fuel and copper cables, all leading to the vandalising of infrastructure.
In 2015, TFR recorded 1,688 security incidents across all its corridors, resulting in the theft of 129km of cables. By the end of March this year, the company recorded 3,877 security incidents, resulting in the theft of 1,121km of cables.
Business Day gained first-hand experience on Friday of the impact of cable theft and general inefficiencies on TFR’s operations when the duration of a trolley ride from Sentrarand to Pyramid South along the Central Corridor was over six hours instead of a scheduled 40 minutes.
The trolley train, which was filled with Transnet acting executives including acting CEO Michelle Phillips and board chair Andile Sangqu, needed to stop multiple times along the track because of cable theft, illegal dumping of waste on Transnet land and illegal electricity connections from informal settlements which have mushroomed close to the railway lines.
Private security
In August, TFR appointed five private security companies in an effort to curb theft and vandalism of its rail infrastructure. The external security companies were tasked with providing the entity with state-of-the-art crime-fighting technologies including early warning detection systems to combat theft, damage and vandalism of TFR’s essential infrastructure.
An unintended consequence of the hiring of external security firms was a protest by disgruntled security personnel who were not absorbed into the new security system. This in turn resulted in vandalism and damage to the network and the disruption of operations along some rail corridors.
“When there are high incidents of cable theft, I can issue a letter of nonperformance,” Bennet said, adding that the new security system is already bearing fruit.
“In some corridors its worked wonders, such as the Cape Corridor and the North East Corridor. The Central Corridor is more or less the same,” he said.
Transnet’s annual earnings report for the 2022/23 financial year showed it swung into a R5.7bn loss from a profit of R5bn in the previous year.
Transnet blamed the deterioration on the decline in rail volumes, which slumped 13.6% to 149-million tonnes in the year to the end of March.
The Minerals Council SA, whose members account for 80% of TFR’s annual revenue and half of Transnet’s group revenue, previously said that in 2021 mining companies missed out on about R35bn in 2021 from contracted coal, iron ore and chrome volumes that could not reach ports because of the entity’s rail network.
The Financial Mail last week reported that the Minerals Council’s chief economist, Henk Langenhoven, previously attributed 20% of the lost tonnages to cable theft and electricity disruptions on the coal rail corridor.
As per the National Rail Policy and the Freight Logistics Roadmap, TFR’s operations are being separated from the infrastructure division, which will become an independent infrastructure manager facilitating the entry of private players onto the rail network.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.