“It ought to be plain how little you gain by getting excited and vexed. You'll always be late for the previous train, and always on time for the next,” famous Danish mathematician Piet Hein once remarked.
I feel there was a time when South Africa was always on time for the train.
For starters, we own the biggest railway network in Africa. Transnet Freight Rail operates a 31,000km long network, a spiderweb of railway lines stretching from Musina to Cape Town; from Hotazel to Bloemfontein and East London; and Richards Bay to Lephalale. Its tentacles reach every corner of this country and beyond.
On paper, we should be transporting a major bulk of our goods on rail. We should also be moving millions of people to work and other destinations on this relatively cheap method of transportation. In fact we used to; but just like everything else the ANC touches, our rail infrastructure is now in a deep state of disrepair.
Before falling victim to poor maintenance, cable theft, vandalism and signalling failures, Transnet’s freight trains were a permanent feature on the landscape, ferrying an assortment of goods from export bound vehicles to liquids and general merchandise. Its refrigerated containers (reefers) moved perishable foods bound for supermarket shelves all over the country, or agricultural products for export.
Will we make it in time for the next train? Not if Transnet employees have anything to do with it. The two major unions at the state-owned transport and logistics group have gone on strike demanding double digit wage increases. The company has upped its offer from an 1.5% to 4.5% hike but the workers have firmly rejected it. The SA Transport and Allied Worker Union (Satawu) told Business Times on Friday its 21,000 members would be downing tools starting on Monday.
When employees of an entity that is literally the lungs of our economy go on strike, the country may soon find itself on life support.
Attempts by Transnet management and government to broker an agreement at the CCMA have drawn a blank.
The problem with a strike of this magnitude is that Transnet is more than a rail company. You think Eskom is the biggest risk to this economy? I have news for you.
Apart from owning and operating the rail network, it runs all our ports, and operates the crucial pipeline transporting fuel and other bulk liquids between KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng.
When employees of an entity that is literally the lungs of our economy go on strike, the country may soon find itself on life support.
What worries me most is the entity is yet to recover from its disastrous brush with state capture. Brian Molefe and co are on trial for engineering a locomotive purchase tender that irregularly ballooned from R38.1bn to R54.5bn, with the extra loot making its way into the back pockets of a slew of Gupta connected rent-seekers, aided by McKinsey and other unscrupulous consulting firms. Because of the illegality of this contract, only 583 of the 1,064 locomotives ordered were delivered. Having successfully challenged it in court, Transnet has been battling to secure the rest of the delivery or get spare parts for the locomotives in service.
Mining companies that rely on its heavy-haul coal and iron ore export lines have long complained of a loss of billions in potential exporting earnings because of Transnet’s inability to ship all contracted goods. In its 2021/22 annual report, Transnet announced that volume performance had declined from 212 million tonnes in 2020/21 to 183 million tonnes. And that is without a strike.
Now that workers — including freight train drivers and port operators — have downed tools, the impact on mining companies (and the overall economy) are too ghastly to contemplate. The Minerals Council spoke of a R50bn cost to its members alone in the past year.
Don’t get me wrong here; workers have a right to withdraw their labour in protest for a living wage. Rising inflation has wreaked havoc on the prices of goods, especially basic food items. Escalating petrol and electricity prices are compounding the cost-of-living crisis. But is it fair for unions to be demanding between 10% and 13%, when they know too well the entity in question cannot afford wage hikes of that magnitude? This strike is going to hurt the country as much as load-shedding.
If we don’t fix things soon, we will never get to the station to board the next train.
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