TRANSNET Freight Rail (TFR) would increase the number of trains between South Africa and Mozambique within the next six months as it looked to step up its role in the Maputo Corridor Logistics Initiative, acting chief executive Tau Morwe said on Wednesday.
Morwe said increasing the number of trains was one of many opportunities Transnet had identified in the corridor. It was an option TFR could explore immediately.
"We will take coal trains to 35 a week from the current seven. We will also double magnetite trains to 14 a week.
"We will look at container traffic and cars because cargo is there, we just have to provide capacity," Morwe said.
The TFR boss was one of the speakers at the Maputo Corridor Logistics Initiative's annual general meeting held in Maputo this week, in which the rail unit of logistics parastatal Transnet was officially welcomed as a member of the initiative's board. He said there was a lot more that the firm could do to assist the corridor, which was established seven years ago.
Transnet would be spending "over R100 billion" on ports and rail in the next five years, he said, but very little of this would be going to the initiative.
Morwe said Transnet was committed to developing the corridor, but members of the initiative should demand that some of the parastatal's capital budget be spent on the corridor.
The initiative is a joint venture between the governments of South Africa and Mozambique, private banks and construction companies. The corridor links Maputo's port through Mpumalanga to Gauteng.
Morwe said another option Transnet would have to consider was of buying a stake in Mozambique's ports and rail company, Portos e Caminhos de Ferro de Mocambique (CFM).
"This suggestion has been on the table for some time. These are all opportunities that we have to consider. Rail and ports are judged by volumes and if we owned the port, decisions would be made on the best route to take.
"For example, we all know that cargo from Mpumalanga should rather go via Maputo and not Durban or Richards Bay and if we had a stake, it would be a win-win situation for everyone," said Morwe.
Brenda Horne, the chief executive of the Maputo Corridor Logistics Initiative, said more than R5bn had been invested in rehabilitating the infrastructure since the corridor was established. She said prior to setting up the corridor there had been little trade between South Africa and Mozambique.
Mozambique is now among South Africa's top 10 trading partners.
A major project under way along the corridor is the establishment of what is to be called a single-window project, which will introduce a new identification system and allow an importer to track the status of a consignment online before sending a truck to collect it.
Horne said another major project was the expansion of the port.
"It is not very often that you have a port concession and this is a unique model.
At the moment, 10 million tons of goods move in the port and the plan is to invest $748 million (R5.2bn) to increase this to 48 million tons over the next 20 years."
Plans are also under way to keep the border post open 24 hours a day. At present, the Lebombo border post on the N4 closes at midnight.
Mathews Phosa, the initiative's joint chairman, said: "Lack of a 24-hour operation affects every potential of the corridor and it will continue to play second fiddle despite its potential." - Slindile Khanyile