Civil Engineering December 2021 | Vol 29 No 11

Le t ter from the ed i tor Civil Engineering December 2021 9 T he structural reforms to allow private rail operators to operate on South Africa’s core rail network form part of a plan to enable more private sector participation in sectors like ports and freight rail, with the aim of increasing competition. It is envisaged that this will ultimately ensure a more reliable and better-quality freight transport service. TFR will also gain a new income stream through access fees. BIG BENEFITS Speaking at a recent African Rail Industry Association (ARIA) webinar, ARIA CEO Mesela Nhlapo stated that opening rail infrastructure to third party operators would provide a multi- billion rand boost to the country’s economy over the next five years, potentially creating thousands of jobs and driving massive economic benefits. ARIA estimates that 58 million tons of cargo could be im- mediately moved from road to rail when third-party access is per- mitted. An estimate by Stellenbosch University puts the number at 73 million tons. ARIA’s early projections suggest that this move will create tens of thousands of upstream jobs by enabling industry and mining to become internationally competitive. RELIABILITY But while the opening of rail infrastructure to private players has the potential to move significant volumes off our roads, the real question is whether TFR’s infrastructure can support the move. Speaking at the same ARIA webinar, Sean Phillips, head of the National Treasury’s Operation Vulindlela unit, which is tasked with accelerating the structural reforms to enable third party access, noted that container freight on rail has halved in the last ten years and moved to road. The reason for this is not that road is cheaper, but rather that the service provided by TFR is not reliable. This reliability is very real concern given TFR’s recent an- nouncement that theft of overhead cables and vandalism of Transnet property has reached unprecedented levels. In the period January 2021 to October 2021, TFR lost over 1 000 km of copper cable over an average of 600 theft and vandalism incidents per month. The incidents range from the theft of copper cable to vandalism of substations, theft of wiring and cable from locomotives, theft of wooden rail sleepers and other malicious damage to Transnet property. The damage runs into hundreds of millions of rands. In a recent statement TFR noted, “The rampant theft and vandalism has severe impact on freight movements and has a di- rect impact on TFR’s and customer’s revenues as we cancel trains daily. Year to date, TFR has cancelled 1 190 trains as a direct re- sult of security related incidents. Many of the incidents take place on high-traffic and high-volume corridors, moving major bulk commodities for our customers. We have seen a particular spike in incidents in the NorthCor (where we move coal), CapeCor (where we move manganese) and the Central Corridor which is a junction connecting all of our corridors. These lost volumes can never be recouped.” CREATING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY In addressing the issue, Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula has outlined a security plan to fight the theft and vandalism of rail infrastructure, including passenger rail which has also experi- enced serious theft and vandalism. The plan largely revolves around boosting security (which is currently severely lacking) through measures such as armed response, control room operations and increasing the number of physical security officials, along with specialised investigation services to improve investigations and charging of offenders. An e-guarding solution has been introduced for the protection of mission critical assets and drones have been deployed to conduct virtual patrols of high-risk infrastructure. Protecting this infrastructure is critical, especially if it has the potential to provide the significant economic boost and job creation that Nhlapo argues allowing third party access will bring – TFR inefficiencies notwithstanding. The irony lies in the fact that the rise in cable theft and vandalism is likely linked to the economic difficulties facing the country, some of which protecting this infrastructure may help to alleviate. While boosting security is clearly a necessary and much needed step, government should perhaps also focus its attention on building a sense of ownership of public infrastruc- ture, which is ultimately built to benefit the population at large. And this extends far beyond rail infrastructure. Until South Africans value infrastructure and understand why it must be protected, we may be fighting an uphill battle as individuals continue to steal and vandalise to the detriment of all. Danielle Petterson Editor: Civil Engineering danielle@saice.org.za Off the rails Late last year President Cyril Ramaphosa announced structural reforms that will allow private rail operators to operate on South Africa’s core rail network. The current target date for enabling third-party use is August 2022. But how will government achieve this when Transport Freight Rail (TFR) is reporting “unprecedented levels” of overhead cable theft and vandalism?