By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Transnet Freight Rail (TFR) says that it will need around R24 million to replace more than 12km of electric cables it lost due to vandalism and theft.
The state-owned logistics firm experienced a spike in incidents of cable theft and infrastructure vandalism due to low levels of security staff during the strike.
The unions downed tools for some two weeks before agreeing to return to work, although Satawu is yet to sign the 6% wage agreement.
The corridor between Johannesburg and Durban lost 12 kilometres of cable during the industrial action.
During a media briefing, TFR CEO Sizakele Mzimela said cable theft increased dramatically during the strike, and it had continued to “seriously hamper” the movement of trains.
Mzimela said TFR had suffered critical theft to infrastructure and cable theft, with the line between Ladysmith and Pietermaritzburg said to be the hardest hit, especially in the Mooi River area.
She said their priority was to ensure that trains can move safely and unblocked trains carrying, fruit, vessels and crane with hazardous materials.
“As indicated, we had the 257 staged trains and as of this morning, 234 of those have been cleared. Unfortunately, we still have 23 trains remains staged as a result of the cable that was stolen. In particular in the container corridor.”
Mzimela however said they had managed to clear some of the backlogs and resume operations to some of the key corridors, including the coal, iron ore, north and east corridors.
“Most corridors have now returned to normal operations and the volume of performance on Sunday was over 100% for corridors such as the north corridor and the ore corridor. We are beginning to see pick-up as well from the other corridors, “Mzimela said.
The Minerals Council of South Africa said last week that the strike had cost the mining sector R6 billion a day, compounded on top of the R50 billion already lost by previous failings.
Despite this, Transnet said it still aims to service 60 million tonnes of coal in its financial year through March 2023.
TFR managing executive for container corridor Rudzani Ligege said cable theft was going to hit the group in the pocket, but this had not moved it from delivering the expected volumes for the year.
“We are looking at a 22% increase in cable theft just on the container corridor over the course of the strike,” Ligege said.
“It will cost us R24 million to replace the stolen wires. The theft of our cable has had an impact, but we are still anticipating delivering 60 million tonnes of freight this year.”
Ligege added that security has been beefed up on the container corridor with additional personnel deployed, drone capacity deployed and additional task teams assigned with engagements with police leading to arrests.