Minister Barbara Creecy: 14th SARA International Rail Conference and Exhibition in Sandton Convention Centre

Keynote deal with speech by the Minister of Transport Ms Barbara Creecy on the event of the 14th SARA International Rail Conference and Exhibition in Sandton Convention Centre, Sandton

Programme Director
President of SARA, Mr Nixon Dlamini
Hon Jacob Hara, Minister of Transport and Public Works from the Government of the Republic of Kenya
Hon Veikko Nekundi, Minister of Works and Transport from the Government of the Republic of Namibia
Hon Keogaile Atamelang, Deputy Minister of Transport and Infrastructure from the Republic of Botswana
Hon Joshua Sacco, Deputy Minister of Transport and Infrastructure from the Republic of Zimbabwe
HE Wamkile Nene, Secretary General of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA)
Mr Raymond Shoniwa, SARA Executive Director
Mr Hishaam Emeran, PRASA Group CEO
Representatives of Foreign Governments
Permanent Secretaries, Director Generals, Chief Executive Officers
Members of the media, Distinguished company
Ladies and Gentlemen

We meet at present at a fancy time for our particular person home and continental economies. Recent world developments together with import tariffs are disrupting lengthy standing commerce and market entry agreements. African economies are trying to find new export markets on the continent and within the wider world.

In this context the African Continental Free Trade Area takes centre stage and offers essential financial alternatives for all of us.

For generations, railways have been the arteries of African commerce and mobility — connecting mines to ports, farms to markets, and other people to alternatives.

Today, as Africa experiences unprecedented commerce disruptions, inhabitants progress, and speedy urbanisation, we stand at a defining second. The selections we make now will decide whether or not rail turns into the driving pressure behind Africa’s integration and prosperity.

The African Integrated Railway Network, rising from the 2023 Zanzibar Declaration, presents us a continental imaginative and prescient of seamless connections, robust manufacturing capabilities, and a united method to infrastructure improvement.

Already we’re witnessing essential investments in upgrading and increasing rail networks throughout our continent.

High-speed rail initiatives, city commuter expansions, and freight hall modernisation have the potential to redefine how items and other people transfer — decreasing prices, growing competitiveness, and connecting landlocked international locations to world markets.

Across the continent, we have now inspiring examples of Strategic Investments and Policy Reforms which illustrate examples of what’s attainable, these embody:

• The Lobito Corridor in Angola, connecting to Zambia and the DRC;

• The Nacala Corridor in Mozambique and Malawi;

• The Beitbridge Bulawayo Railway in Zimbabwe; and

• TAZARA linking Tanzania and Zambia.

This transformation is not only about constructing extra tracks. It is about creating a contemporary, interconnected, and environment friendly African rail system that hyperlinks our cities, international locations, and areas — making borders gateways somewhat than limitations.

However investing in rail alone will not be sufficient to attain our targets. Modern provide chains imply we should combine rail with ports, roads, and inland logistics hubs. We should additionally harmonise rules, requirements, and procedures throughout borders in order that items can transfer simply inside the free market space.

Today at this 14th version of the SARA Rail Conference and Exhibition we meet below the theme: Transporting Africa Forward: Accelerating rail progress to spice up mobility and financial alternative throughout Africa.

I believed I might share with you some features of the implementation of the nationwide rail reform programme that’s underway in South Africa and our nation’s broad goal of constructing rail the spine of our transport system.

To this finish, the National Rail Policy of South Africa establishes the precept that rail infrastructure will stay state-owned, whereas alternatives will exist for third occasion entry in rail operations. The coverage emphasises the significance of financial regulation to facilitate equitable entry to the rail community and ensures that it’s correctly managed.

Last week Friday I introduced that eleven non-public sector operators have met the preliminary utility standards and have been allotted amongst them a complete of 41 routes throughout six corridors, for working durations of as much as ten years.

The Transnet Rail Infrastructure Manager (TRIM) estimates that the brand new Train Operating Companies (TOCs) will carry an extra 20 million tonnes of freight every year from the 2026/27 monetary yr. This will complement Transnet Freight Rail’s (TFR’s) forecasted volumes and contribute to Government’s goal of accelerating freight moved by rail to 250 million tons every year by 2029.

This is a major step in our rail reform journey and makes open entry to freight rail a actuality in our nation. It will contribute to a extra environment friendly, dependable and sustainable rail system that may promote inclusive progress and guarantee job retention and job creation.

Our third-party entry framework is anchored by the Transnet Rail Infrastructure Manager (TRIM), which was established in late 2024.

Since the final SARA convention of 2024, TRIM printed its First Network Statement along with the Rail Access Tariff on twentieth December 2024 for the 2024/25 monetary yr. This milestone supplied the trade with a possibility to have full details about the state of your complete rail community within the nation.

This included info on community description, infrastructure info, operational guidelines, entry and capability, safety and upkeep points.

We are on track to publish the Fourth Network Statement for 2026/2027, together with the Rail Access Tariff later this yr.

The present state of Transnet’s rail infrastructure is trigger for concern for freight operators and cargo house owners alike. The state has restricted availability of sources for main refurbishment. This makes non-public sector funding important. Earlier this yr we concluded a Request for Information course of.

Transnet will concern Requests for Proposals later this yr and start the formal procurement course of which is able to convey substantial non-public sector funding into our rail infrastructure in all probability by way of a concessioning mannequin.

It is essential to stress as soon as once more that this course of will happen within the context of the community as an entire remaining in state possession.

To maintain our economic system, we can’t afford to attend till the PSPs attain monetary shut in earlier than launching a programme to rehabilitate Transnet’s rail community.

Immediate sources of finance for this work embody Transnet’s present infrastructure budgets, two functions to National Treasury’s Budget Facility for Infrastructure and a joint funding and collaboration framework which may enable present prospects to help in repairing the community with out including to Transnet’s debt.

In South Africa, reforms such because the separation of infrastructure and operations at Transnet, the strengthening of the Railway Safety Regulator, and the enlargement of passenger rail by way of PRASA’s revitalised providers are setting essential examples for the continent.

The White Paper on National Rail Policy, 2022 centralises strategic rail planning at a nationwide stage and directs the event of a National Rail Master Plan (NRMP).

The plan shall be a complete, evidence-based framework to information the transformation of South Africa’s rail sector over the subsequent thirty years, which we intend to finish throughout this monetary yr.

When applied, our Master Plan would complement the SADC Regional Rail Master Plan. Going ahead we are able to use each plans to work collectively as a area we are able to work collectively to:

• Assess the state of railway establishments, infrastructure, security, regulation, and intermodal linkages;

• Build complete information to make initiatives financially and technically bankable;

• Embed well being, gender inclusiveness, job creation, and local weather consciousness into all initiatives;

• Evaluate and prioritise railway corridors for funding;

• Define short-, medium-, and long-term funding programmes; and

• Establish clear appraisal procedures and roles for all stakeholders.

This structured method may function a blueprint for continental cooperation, inspiring related frameworks in different African areas.

Our footprint in worldwide rail improvement was anchored when South Africa grew to become the sixth State, and the second African state after Gabon, to ratify the Luxembourg Rail Protocol. The ratification of the Protocol is an important a part of the rail open entry technique of Government.

South Africa’s ratification of the Protocol helps the event of worldwide financing within the railway sector and is a vital step in facilitating financing within the rail trade, which is a key aspect for social improvement and financial progress in the entire continent as recognised by the African Union Agenda.

Ladies and gents

In the passenger rail house, the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) is restoring routes, introducing trendy practice units, and enhancing security — proving that passenger rail could be an inexpensive, dependable, and dignified transport choice for tens of millions.

Thus far PRASA has efficiently revived 35 out of 40 corridors and sections of service traces, and the company achieved an unaudited determine of 77 million passenger journeys for the final monetary yr.

In September we’ll launch the Request for Information (RFI) for passenger rail, which is able to provoke the method of figuring out the urge for food for funding in commuter rail.

By recovering our passenger rail capability we purpose to achieve the milestone of 600 million annual passenger journeys on the PRASA community, inside 5 years.

As we develop, we should guarantee our railways are inexperienced, climate-resilient, and sustainable. Electrification, hybrid locomotives, and round economic system practices will assist us meet our local weather targets.

At the identical time, we should spend money on our individuals — coaching engineers and logistics practitioners, technicians, managers, and innovators who will design and function the railways of the long run. This is about constructing African abilities for African rail options.

Colleagues, the theme Transporting Africa Forward: Accelerating rail progress to spice up mobility and financial alternative throughout Africa is greater than an aspiration — it’s a dedication. We have the instruments, the know-how, the coverage frameworks, and above all, the individuals to make it occur.

Let us transfer from dialogue to supply, from imaginative and prescient to motion. Together, we are able to construct an African rail community that powers our economies, connects our individuals, and secures a greater future for generations to come back.

The Africa we would like is inside attain — and we’ll get there collectively, as a result of collectively we’re higher.

I thanks.

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