African Rail boss calls for integrated and diversified railway industry

CEO Mesela Nhlapo of the African Rail Industry Association (Aria), formerly known as the Rail Road Association, has called for an integrated and diversified industry.

Nhlapo said the railway industry had to adapt and de-monopolise its economy, which included bringing women leaders into the conversation and re-imagining it beyond government control.

“The government has been found wanting in issues of procurement, where business deals that needed to be secured immediately were delayed, which kills the market. This has revealed the over-reliance on business from government. Hence, we need that access which will then transform the industry to have a diverse client base as compared to having only two clients, namely, Transnet and Prasa.

“Moreover, we can do more with women engineers and industry leaders who are practically being shut-out, except for people like myself, who without a seat at the table, take a camp chair in order to be part of the table,” said Nhlapo.

Aria is an industry representative of manufacturers, rail operators and export council that creates export opportunities for local private railway companies.

It is working in partnership with other stakeholders to forge private rail operators access to Transnet’s infrastructure to attract investments, grow the economy and create more jobs in the rail upstream value chain.

In October 2020, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced the government’s Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan, which included granting access to the rail network for private businesses. He said the plan would ensure that private companies were able to help the government meet its objective in infrastructure delivery and aid the need for job creation.

“We will focus on critical network infrastructure such as ports, roads and rail that are key to our economy’s competitiveness. We have taken steps to remove the constraints that have hampered infrastructure delivery in the past. This approach is already encouraging private investors to help us build capability for infrastructure delivery within the state and to develop blended financing models and create employment,” said Ramaphosa.