One aspect of SA’s infrastructural challenges, whether it be water, electricity supply, public transport or freight rail is the inroads that the private sector has made with both good and perverse outcomes.
With regard to electricity supply, the positive development is the increasing provision of renewable energy by private players. Negatively, private operators of coal trucks and suppliers of spare parts to Eskom have carved out a market niche for themselves which they refuse to relinquish even if this means a resort to sabotage.
The same thing can be observed in the recent water crisis in Hammanskraal where water tankers have been crucial in the supply of water to communities but where there have been allegations of infrastructural damage to maintain the function. Minibus taxi operators, who play an important role in getting people to work, have destroyed public buses which they regard as competition for customers.
Given this tendency, it is worrying to think what will happen if and when the service of Transnet Freight Rail, which has been hard hit by cable theft, improves so that its reliance on truck transport declines.
There should be a way for both private and public providers of goods and services to coexist as competitors in the market.
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