Cape Town - The massive volumes of freight being moved
across South Africa by road rather than rail came under the spotlight in
Parliament on Tuesday.
"The road freight sector carries 87% of the total
freight in the country," senior transport department official Clement
Manyungwana told MPs.
Briefing members of the transport portfolio committee, he
said that in 2003, about 720 million tonnes out of a total 900 million tonnes of surface
freight transported had moved by road.
By 2007, the by-road figure had almost doubled to just
under 1.4 billion tonnes of the total 1.6 billion tonnes of surface freight moved.
"Among the key challenges we face is the damage of
roads due to the intensive usage in the movement of freight, (as well as)
congestion, accidents and pollution."
He said the decline in freight rail over the past decade was
due to, among other things, a lack of investment in rolling stock, a lack of
customer focus, a lack of flexibility and insufficient investment in training,
development and staff by the operator.
"We currently have (insufficient) investment in our
network and (freight) rolling stock. Transnet currently has a (capital
expenditure) of R110bn over the next five years.
"The view is, this is not sufficient; let alone the
additional funding that is needed for the railway branchline network.
"Outdated technology within the rail network causes us
to have continuous challenges (compared to) road. But a lack of customer
focus... is one serious, serious challenge that (causes) our rail (freight
operations) to decline.
"This is particularly in terms of the tariff regime
that our rail environment charges overnight without, in most instances,
consulting with the customers. But also just lack of collaboration with the
customer base that can make investments work within the rail space," he
said.
Manyungwana's presentation came under fire from Democratic
Alliance MP Manny De Freitas, who said he had hoped it would say what was being
done, rather than reviewing what was known.
"It's just talk, talk, talk, and there's no plan,"
he said.
DA transport spokesperson Stuart Farrow called for urgent
action to halt further deterioration of the country's road network, which
already faced a R140bn maintenance backlog.
He asked why it was not possible to immediately amend
legislation to force goods traditionally transported by rail, such as timber,
grain, coal and ore, off the roads and onto rail in regions where a parallel
rail network existed.
Responding, Manyungwana said the run-down state of the rail
network meant this was not possible.
"You can't just wake up and amend the (National Road
Traffic Act) to shift from road to rail. You would have a problem, come the
compliance and the readiness of the railways.
"Let's deal with the inefficiencies of the railways
before we make that pronouncement. We could do it tomorrow... but would the
railways be ready?"
He said that rather than implement a "broad plan for
the country" to tackle the problem, the department was planning a
"big bang" intervention focused on the Durban-Gauteng corridor.
A total of 56 million tonnes of freight moved along this corridor
last year, only 8% of it by rail.
Manyungwana said a road freight strategy was being
developed.
"We're currently finalising what we call the road
freight strategy, to begin to - whether you call it re-regulation, or whatever
- manage the road freight space."
The department also planned to establish an integrated
transport commission.
"This will be a technical platform to coordinate,
evaluate and approve plans and investments of all the modes in the transport
sector. It will also balance infrastructure spending."
He said a "rail policy" was also taking shape. A
draft green paper was being drawn up by the department's top management.