Roy Cokayne
THE AU has decided that South Africa will become a hub for the manufacturing and supply of rail stock for Africa.
Transport Minister Dipuo Peters announced this yesterday in an address at the Southern African Transport Conference in Pretoria, adding this decision was especially pleasing considering the massive investments being made by the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) and Transnet.
“There is a great opportunity to partner with AU member states in this regard.
“Soon we would be rolling out Prasa Autopax bus services and Shosholoza Meyl Long Distance passenger services into the region and continent,” she said.
Peters added that Prasa was in the midst of a massive rail revitalisation programme and its brand new modern and safe commuter train was complete and expected to be delivered in South Africa in November this year.
She said this R51 billion programme would be rolled out over 10 years to procure 600 top class trains for the people of South Africa, with a total of 580 of these trains earmarked to be manufactured at a new factory to be built in Dunnottar in Ekurhuleni at a cost of R1bn.
Regulatory requirements, issues of the land and environmental impact assessment processes were being finalised and the sod turning ceremony would take place soon, she said.
A media report at the weekend claimed 13 Afro 4000 diesel locomotives worth R600 million, that had so far been delivered to Prasa as part of a larger R3.5bn order for 70 new locomotives, were too high for the long distance routes they were intended to be used on.
The DA claimed Peters had misled Parliament in stating, in a response to a question why the locomotives differed in dimension from the requirements, that the new locomotives were no different in any form.
Peters said yesterday she had asked the chairperson of the board of Prasa to provide her with relevant details regarding this matter and the details for the answer she provided to Parliament were given to her by Prasa and she took the agency’s word for it.
“We can’t just stay because this thing was reported in the media we take it as fact. We need to do our own investigation,” she said.
Peters told Business Report that the initiative for South Africa to become a hub for the manufacturing and supply of rail stock for Africa was still in a conceptual stage but formed part of the strategic integrated project 17, which is focused on regional integration for African co-operation and development.
She said South Africa had two programmes with Transnet and Prasa and believed there was now also a third leg that needed to speak to how these initiatives addressed this particular development in the continent and how other role players in the continent came into the picture because it was not only South Africa that needed to be part of this initiative.
Peters said this meant Prasa and Transnet would have to engage with their counterparts in the region and look at how this initiative fitted within South Africa’s frameworks and laws.
“It’s exciting times but also for us in South Africa it is recognition that South Africa has started the investment but also the drive to re-engineer the rail industry in the continent,” she said.
Peters said the poor and inadequate state of Africa’s transport network hampered its effective competition on the global market.