The CEO of the Minerals Council of South Africa, Roger Baxter, has described Transnet’s rail inefficiencies as a catastrophe that cost the economy R150 billion in unrealised mineral export revenue in 2022 alone.
Baxter was speaking at the Mineral Council’s 133rd AGM in Johannesburg o Wednesday.
He says urgent interventions by the National Logistics Crisis Committee, which was recently appointed by President Cyril Ramaphosa, are necessary.
He claims the committee will be critical in driving reforms such as the rail policy white paper.
“We account for nearly 80% of Transnet Freight Rail’s business and 50% of Transnet’s group revenue and in the past year, the sector between targets, for instance, actual performance lost is R50 billion in revenue, but that’s not the cost. The real cost to the country is R150 billion in forfeited mineral exports if we had been operating those rail facilities in name plates or in enhanced name plates capacity. So, these numbers are big. Whenever Minister (Enoch) Godongwana sees me, he often asks me the question, Roger how are we going to fix the rail crisis? I keep telling him it’s a catastrophe, not a crisis.”
More details in the video below:
