Track record
The collapse of South Africa’s freight rail network has placed a significant strain on the economy, forcing goods that should move quickly and efficiently by rail onto congested roads. Theft of electric cables has been a major driver of the crisis. In 2025 alone, Transnet said its teams had to replace 700 km of stolen cable.
In 2015, Transnet moved 227-million tonnes of freight, but by 2023, this had dropped to 150-million tonnes. By 2025, volumes had recovered slightly to 160-million tonnes, but that’s still nearly a third lower than a decade ago.
General freight, which includes all goods except iron-ore and coal, has been hardest hit, dropping by 40% over the past decade from 91-million tonnes to 55-million tonnes. Coal transport has also fallen by 30% since 2015.
To improve the situation, Transnet has opened its rail network to private companies, with the aim of increasing volumes to 250-million tonnes a year by 2029. Twenty-five companies applied for access to the rail network, but only 11 will proceed to the next round of negotiations. Private firms will be allocated routes for between one and ten years.
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