By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (SATAWU) and United National Transport Union (UNTU) have slammed Transnet’s move to divide its freight rail operations.
Transnet Freight Rail (TFR) has announced its official split into an infrastructure management company and an operations company.
Group CEO Michelle Phillips said, 1 October marked the official start of the vertical separation of TFR into two operating divisions, namely, Transnet Infrastructure Manager (TRIM) and Transnet Freight Rail (TFR) as the operations company.
Durban Port manager Moshe Motlohi will act as TRIM CEO while the recruitment process for a permanent appointment gets under way.
TFR, led by Russel Baatjies, will focus on Transnet’s operations business, moving volumes on the network.
“Along with this milestone, TRIM will soon invite interested train-operating companies to apply for rail access and slots will be allocated based on availability in various corridors,” Phillips indicated.
The unbundling of TFR by October is one of the conditions tied to the R47-billion guarantee facility from the National Treasury.
“We are against it as we do not know the dynamics around it. They are not being transparent enough about where the money is going to come from. We have so many unanswered questions at this stage. More than anything we are worried about job security. We do not know what is going to happen to those employees who will be transferred from this division to another. In addition to this, bringing other private operators into rail network that has not been maintained for years is a disaster in waiting in terms of safety and efficiency of operations. This particles separation is retained privatisation and corruption because it is not communicated to us,” says SATAWU spokesperson Amanda Tshemese.
Meanwhile the United National Transport Union (UNTU), said the move was “unexpected and premature” and that it was left “blindsided”, particularly after a meeting with Transnet management last week, when several key questions about the rail reform remained unanswered.