Johannesburg - Transnet is planning to finalise the building of prototypes for its locomotives by October and to conclude the expansion of the Swazi rail link within the next few months.
The company’s acting chief executive Siyabonga Gama told Business Report in an exclusive interview on Friday that Transnet was working on transporting fast-moving consumer goods to offset the decline in commodity prices.
Gama said these projects were key to the company’s expansion programme and its cash flow reserve.
“We want to look at moving goods across the country in as fast as possible a manner because that will clearly benefit our bottom line,” said Gama.
“We also have to create a value chain that will create a lot of jobs in South Africa and ensure that our (prototype) manufacturing industry is enhanced.”
Gama, the longest serving member of the Transnet Group executive committee, was confirmed as the new head of Transnet last week, beating two other contenders for the position after his predecessor, Brian Molefe, was seconded to Eskom to sort out the problems bedevilling the power utility.
Like Molefe, Gama enjoys the political support of President Jacob Zuma, his deputy Cyril Ramaphosa and Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown.
NO APOLOGIES
Gama is positive that he has what it takes to lead the multibillion-rand logistics and rail giant.
He said he did not see himself as an ad hoc leader who could not make decisions on behalf of the company.
“I am not apologetic of my appointment and if executive decisions need to be made and implemented I am going to do that,” said Gama.
“We do not have the luxury to defer decisions, Transnet is the backbone of the economy and if we cannot move then the whole country would suffer.”
Transnet consists of five divisions: national ports authority, port terminals, rail engineering, pipelines and freight rail.
The logistics parastatal is in the third year of a seven-year, more-than-R300 billion drive to increase rail and port capacity.
Last year, Transnet reported 12.8 percent growth to R56.6bn during its financial results.
The company said capital investment increased by 15.6 percent to R31.8bn and that cash generated from operations after working capital changes increased by 11.6 percent to R25.3bn.
The company reported that its profit for the year increased by 24.9 percent to R5.2bn and that it had strong volume growth in automotive and containers on rail of 25.2 percent.
Gama said the company’s expansion programme should focus on the company’s export business amid falling commodity prices.
“We have to produce pipelines and ensure that we get new berths for our ports.
“We also have to increase our capacity in our port terminals so that we can reduce our dependence on commodities and mining,” he said.