The South African development story before 1994 was driven by five vertices. An important one on our current hapless search for what form state-owned enterprises (SOEs) should take need not be China or OECD. Instead, it should be in how Jan Smuts and his scientist Hendrik van Bijl ran the state as a socially conscious entity using economics to achieve the needed impact. These five vertices were race, rail, maize, gold and war. These systematically enhanced the spectacular development achievements South Africa made, however, to the detriment of 90% of the population that was discriminated against. I discuss rail, the fourth and fifth vertices, because they became relevant catalysts that we should study, especially in the Smuts-Bijl nexus.
Though today there is very little rail in existence compared with what it used to be, it was pivotal to South Africa’s advancement. The first rail line was constructed in 1860. It was three kilometres long and connected Durban’s Market Square to the Point. The Natal Railway Company was responsible for that. The Natal Mercury said this about the initiative: “It will substitute the railway age of animation for the wagon age of sloth. It will set upon this portion of barbarism-bound continent the truest seal of the Englishman’s presence. It will supersede a state of plodding but primitive action for one of modern enterprise and rapid progress.” Rail then was the main infrastructure for freight and passengers for more than a 120 years ago. This led to some deciding to crown South Africa as a railway country. The Netherlands-South African Railway Company (NZASM) in 1887, was responsible for constructing the rail line from Pretoria to Lourenco Marques in what was then the Portuguese East Africa colony. There was also a shorter line connecting Pretoria to Johannesburg.
The rail infrastructure was instrumental in connecting a once-disparate hinterland and the gestation of industrialisation was nigh. There was one ingredient that was outstanding. This would reduce hostilities between the English and the Afrikaner.
In 1861 a small steam engine was imported from Scotland. The line was to be from the Cape Town harbour to Wellington, a distance of 70km. With the discovery of diamonds in Kimberley in 1869, the future of rail could not be brighter. But a bigger shine on rail was sparked by the discovery of gold on the Reef. This strengthened the vision of Cecil Rhodes, who set his eyes on constructing a railway line from Cape to Cairo. The rail from Kimberley would stretch to Vryburg, Mahikeng in 1891 — a distance of 363km. Around the same time a whole network of rail infrastructure was commissioned. Among these was the ultimate connecting of Port Elizabeth to Bloemfontein by 1892. This covered 671km. The founding province of Natal re-emerged and by 1891 Durban was connected to Glencoe and the Transvaal. The rail infrastructure was instrumental in connecting a once-disparate hinterland and the gestation of industrialisation was nigh. There was one ingredient that was outstanding. This would reduce hostilities between the English and the Afrikaner. It was then necessary to place the four colonies under unification and the 1910 Act of Union gave birth to a Union of South Africa. Shortly thereafter the Union the South African Railways and Harbours (SAR&H) was born. But the birth of the union excluded Africans, coloureds and Indians.
South Africa was to extend territory into Namibia, first by building a 227km rail line into the German territory of South West Africa. This was from Prieska to Nakop. This stretch of rail was built in 82 days. Once the Germans were defeated South Africa took over the railway authority of South West Africa. In the ensuing period from 1910, 9,000km of rail line were added to the South African rail infrastructure.
JBM Hertzog came to power with a slogan of South Africa First. He continued on the expansion of the rail infrastructure though the Great Depression impacted his ambition negatively when the strong trading partner, the US, abandoned the Gold Standard. Eskom provided power to the rail line, and the first test electric train was tested in 1924. During the depression many a desperate in the workforce were rescued, but this assistance was directed at whites. The period of depression between the two wars witnessed migration into urban spaces on a grand scale, and this fuelled the industrialisation agenda of South Africa despite the depression. Post-WWII the rail infrastructure continued to expand. In 1946 the Kazerne goods depot came into operation, and by 1954 the rail mechanical workshops at Koedoespoort were commissioned.
This to date remains a showcase of South Africa’s capability in the construction of railway infrastructure. Expansion of railways to develop connectivity for goods and passengers grew at a rapid rate and with it technologies developed. For instance, the effect of the first crossing of two trains implemented in June 1955 led to the development of the Centralised Traffic Control. The rail transport connected the Southern Africa region and the Mahalapye-Bulawayo area was connected to Vryburg , thus connecting three countries, South Africa, Botswana (Bechuanaland) and (Zimbabwe) Rhodesia. As minerals were discovered and the demand for their consumption grew exponentially, a network of rails was constructed, notably Grootvlei-Redan; Ogies-Broodsnyerspas; Whites-Allanridge; and Lohatla-Sishen, which were nodes for mineral transit systems.
More importantly the integration of rail logistics and coal production marked the beginning into the management of global value chains. The Richards Bay and the coal line along with the takeover of the Sishen-Saldanha railway line from Iscor a year later represent major achievements in transforming South Africa into a major ore and coal-exporting country. A century later in 1960 the steam engines were being retired and fast replaced by diesel locomotives. And as the 1970s opened, new and better technologies had been developed with the building of South Africa’s own goods train. These were extended to carry 9,000 metric tons and were followed by 21,800 tonnes. Speed also became part of the deal and in 1976 a railway record was set with a test train that reached 208km/h, and three years later the record was broken when it reached 245km/h.
In 1981, South Africa brought together the infrastructure components of railway, harbour, road transport, aviation and pipeline operations under one roof that was to be known as South African Transport Services (SATS). As these happened the operational management model was transformed into units and divisions, with a strong emphasis on localised management. SATS transformed nine years into a limited company known as Transnet, with the rail division renamed Spoornet in July 2007.
The fifth vertex was war. WWII erupted and South Africa would play a crucial role. Its territory was not involved in war, but it had built logistical capability and was on the cusp of industrialisation. South Africa had built a network of large mechanical workshops for supporting the railway system. Though this system became strained by the demands for war, it was well positioned to manufacture materials for war and fix war wares especially in the face of disruptions that blocked the efficient running of the rail supply chain, but it also had to supply soldiers who would be in the battlefield. The demand for men to go to war and to work was at its peak. The destruction of the coal fields in Europe presented South Africa as the only viable option. The bold steps Hertzog took in the face of adversity emanating from the Great Depression yielded fruit in terms of production and haulage of coal. The endeavour increased production capacity significantly. By the end of WWII, the role South Africa played in the war catapulted her into an industrial hub and leader in exports of especially minerals.
But it was also to protect its apartheid policy that led South Africa to build a war chest of scientific capability in fuel technology and petro chemicals in Sasol. From the plant in Secunda, Sasol would develop a technique to extract oil from coal to bust the sanctions that were about to be implemented. It was also against the frontline states that were determined to end apartheid and decimate vestiges of colonialism in Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Namibia and apartheid in South Africa that informed the country's industrialisation strategy on ammunition.
Faced with stiff sanctions, South Africa developed an inward-looking strategy of retrofitting old technology into the new and the future. It achieved many firsts in this regard in the field of ammunition. Importantly the sanctions caused South Africa to dig deep. Sasol technology was developed to process oil from coal, and weaponry had to be manufactured in South Africa. Armscor repurposed the Olifant Mk1As, the abandoned British-made Centurion tanks. They bought this old stock from India and Jordan. The Atlas Cheetah were copied and the technology was based on Mirage III airframes and was inspired by the IAI Kfir. From the French armoured personnel carrier, the Berliet VXB, South Africa would build the six-wheeled Ratel IFV; Armscor also developed the Eland Mk7, a larger and more sophisticated variant of the Panhard AML armoured car.
As former ANC president Oliver Tambo said, study your enemy for not all is wrong in what they did.
From the WWII experience in 1945, South Africa had the beginnings of building mega capability in producing ammunition. It possessed exceptionally competent scientists and engineers adept at substituting local manufacture for imports. Generally, Armscor proceeded by studying specimens of foreign equipment, sometimes through one of its third parties, then applying these skills to their improvement. By the 1990s it could boast of being ‘a world leader’ in the field of upgrading obsolete weapons. Apartheid South Africa’s GDP growth and economic development can be traced to war, yet too was the termination of apartheid.
The question is what did pulling the curtain on 1860-1994 mean? Did South Africa have the technical capacity and depth of planning and implementation to deal with the huge challenges brought about by the period from 1860 where the country witnessed systematic marginalisation and displacement of blacks from reaping the benefits of the economy and education? What would be the transformative pillars to catapult blacks from historical participation as cheap labour? What type of education to transform the landscape? After 160 years of huge industrial revolution, South Africa’s black demographic transition was not accompanied by higher incomes and better standard of living. What should South Africa learn and do differently?
Rather than go haplessly across the world searching for SOE positioning, we need to study the Smuts-Bijl nexus and ask what is the nexus in our current context. As former ANC president Oliver Tambo said, study your enemy for not all is wrong in what they did. This is an excerpt from a paper I penned in 2019 titled Deeper Understanding of the Youth Unemployment: The Race Rail Maize Gold War Pentagon.
Dr Pali Lehohla is a professor of practice at the University of Johannesburg, a research associate at Oxford University, a board member of Institute for Economic Justice at Wits and a distinguished alumni of the University of Ghana. He is the former statistician-general of South Africa
For opinion and analysis consideration, email Opinions@timeslive.co.za
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