Transnet’s woes continued yesterday with the head of the utility’s freight rail unit, Sizakele Mzimela, confirming her resignation only days after the CEO and chief financial officer (CFO) announced their resignations as she made clear that only the purchase of locomotives could save the day.
Mzimela said in a letter to Transnet collogues yesterday, “ I pray that the cry for support to unlock the artery to the heart of this business, locomotives, is finally heard and acted upon. This will results in the heightened delivery that our country, its people and economy so desperately need to thrive.”
She said, “Arriving at TFR during the hight of Covid in April 2020 seems like a distant memory. It’s hard for me to believe that it was just three short years ago when I was received by not more than four peoplein the TFR office. Today, I am happy that as I leave at the end of October 2023, I had the opportunity to personally meet and engage with so many you...”
Reuters reported Mzimela as saying after her presentation at a mining conference in Johannesburg ,"It's a personal choice at the end of the day. When things change, you decide whether you fit in or don't fit in. Whether you align or you don't align," .
Mzimela joined Transnet Freight Rail (TFR) – the biggest operating division – in April 2020.
Transnet said in a statement it had appointed Russell Baatjies as acting TFR CEO with effect from November 1, while a recruitment process for a permanent CE was under way.
Until recently, Baatjies was the managing executive for Transnet’s Cape Corridor.
He previously held the role of general manager for the Iron Ore and Manganese (IOM) Business Unit at TFR, a position he held since 2017.
Mzimela's resignation follows last Friday's announcement that Transnet group CEO Portia Derby would leave at the end of this month. Another executive, CFO Nonkululeko Dlamini, also left last week to join South African telecoms company Telkom.
Transnet's management has been under pressure from miners, industry bodies and labour unions over the deteriorating performance of the freight rail utility.
The mining industry in particular has been hurt by Transnet's under-performance, which has cost mineral exporters billions of rand in potential revenue.
Transnet's flagship freight rail service has struggled due to the shortage of locomotives and spares, a contract dispute on new locomotives as well as cable theft and vandalism of its infrastructure.
Transient’s general freight business volumes declined by 17.44% to 49.6 million tons railed in the year to March 31, which was 26.9% below the target of 67.9mt, with the reasons given as the prevailing weak economic climate and various operational issues, including network, manning and resource challenges.
“The performance of the entire logistics system (in the past financial year) was affected by the key constraints, which include the lack of locomotives, the poor state of infrastructure and the high number of incidents of crime, vandalism and sabotage.”
“The suspension of the contract for 1 064 locomotives and the ongoing contract disputes with CRRC (China’s CRRC E-Loco) have resulted in reduced locomotive availability and an increase in inoperable locomotives as an older, less reliable fleet remains in service, causing systemic inefficiencies, a decrease in capacity, which impacted overall performance,” TFR said in its annual review.
The Transnet group slumped to a R5.7 billion loss in the year ended March 31. The rail reforms envisaged by the National Rail Policy in South Africa was expected to advance TFR’s performance by introducing measures that would result in better access for third party rail operators that require access to TFR’s network by meeting access criteria.
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