Transnet: More than R1bn spent on freight security last year
Transnet Freight Rail CEO Sizakele Mzimela says R1.6 billion has been spent on security to keep the freight rail lines open.
Mzimela was speaking at the release of the Railway Safety Regulator (RSR) latest safety report on Wednesday.
Mzimela lamented the impact of theft and vandalism on the country’s freight rail services.
“We have seen an increase of 177% in terms of theft and vandalism on our lines which has a significant impact on our ability to move the critical export volumes that the country requires us to be exporting.
“In terms of numbers of incidents pertaining to theft, it is about 300 incidents in a month, but if we take all incidents in a month including the theft of key infrastructures such as substations then it adds up to 600 incidents a month,” she said.
Mzimela says R1.6bn had been spent on security to ensure the safe transportation of commodities.
“We have been fortunate from a freight business perspective that we have had the ability to continue to operate during all the different levels of lockdown, but we have just seen an increasing challenge in relation to the amount of theft which has had an impact on what we have been able to deliver from a volume expectation.
“There are initiatives that we have been undertaking and we have had to increase our use of technology, we use technology like drones and we have had to increase the number of people that support us on the ground and that has led to an increase in how much we spend on security as an organisation.”
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