Transnet has also reported big financial losses, with the results for the year to end-March 2023 showing a loss of R5.7 billion, and the utility citing the inefficiencies of its rail network as a major reason.
Cosatu acting national spokesperson Matthew Parks has expressed his views on the Transnet situation, stating that Transnet is declining fast and that the government needed to make the parastatal as much of a priority as it did Eskom.
He said the country no longer had time to wait for a new CEO to be appointed to Transnet, nor could it afford a similar situation to occur as what happened at Eskom, where it had taken a year to fill the position of CEO. He said the actions taken by the government to fix the problems at Eskom appeared to be bearing fruit.
According to Parks, Transnet was “in a deep crisis” through mismanagement and corruption, and the situation had not improved in the more than two years that the previous CEO, Portia Derby, had been in office, before her surprise resignation on Friday.
Speaking about South Africa’s rail problems, Parks said: “Mining has missed two commodity booms already. We can’t continue the way we are … Next year’s Budget (February 2024) is going to be too late to announce the changes that were required.“
Source: iol.co.za
