“A key problem on our roads is the massive migration of freight – very heavy freight – onto the road system. That’s freight that should be on rail,” Deputy Transport Minister Jeremy Cronin said at an infrastructure development cluster media briefing.  ”We’ve really got to improve, very significantly, the Transnet Freight Rail (TFR) system. We need to get much, much, much more freight back onto rail. It’s the main cause… for damage to our roads”.

According to a briefing document issued by the Department of Transport (DoT), the rail freight system is “fraught with serious performance challenges”.  The most important cause is “historical under-investment in infrastructure, rolling stock and operating equipment”.  In consequence, the railway is unable to meet current demand.

Transnet has embarked on “massive” infrastructure and operational investments to improve service levels. In the next five years, it will invest about R93.4bn in ports, rail and pipeline infrastructure and operations.  Over the past five years – between 2005/06 and 2009/10 – R75.3bn has gone into these areas.

In Cronin’s words, maintenance of South Africa’s road network poses a “major challenge”, with the main problem tending to occur “at a provincial and municipal level.” There are a number of reasons for this, including under-funding of as much as R60bn.

“That’s steep, and as you fall back from one year to another, the condition of the roads gets worse and they deteriorate quite rapidly.”

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