Unions worry about Transnet Freight Railway split, private sector participation

Africa Melane speaks to Cobus van Vuuren, spokesperson for the United National Transport Union (UNTU).

Listen below.

Transnet Freight Rail (TFR) has announced plans to split its operations, marking a major shift in the state-owned enterprise's structure.

It's a significant development for the country's logistics landscape, and one TFR says is designed to allow for private-sector participation in South Africa's national rail network.

But, the United National Transport Union says it's concerned by the move and says the split is premature.

Van Vuuren says during the consultative process several obstacles were identified.

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"Transet has got a very limited number of locomotives and wagons currently in opertion. Secondly, the infrastructure itself is dilapadated. Thirdly, there is still a lot of sabotage on the lines."

- Cobus Van Vuuren, Spokesperson - United National Transport Union 

"To bring in private partners that are going to be hiring parts of these rails for goods is not feasible and practical because they'e going to be faced with exactly the same challenges."

- Cobus Van Vuuren, Spokesperson - United National Transport Union 

"The inefficiencies will not disappear."

- Cobus Van Vuuren, Spokesperson - United National Transport Union 

Scroll up to the audio player to listen to more of the concerns of the United National Transport Union.

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