The Development Bank of Southern Africa is working with Transnet SOC Ltd. to help South Africa’s state ports and freight-rail operator prepare projects for private participation. Some say that currently, Transnet’s container terminals are also among the world’s least efficient.
That’s prompted South Africa’s presidency to propose a plan that would see many of the ports and key rail lines concessioned to private operators that would also be responsible for modernizing the dilapidated infrastructure.
The state company has gone some way toward including private participation on its networks. It’s finalizing an agreement with the Philippines’s International Container Terminal Services Inc. to help run and expand Africa’s biggest container port in Durban. It’s also seeking private operators for a citrus terminal and the key rail-freight line between Durban and South Africa’s industrial heartland of Gauteng, the province where Johannesburg and Pretoria are located.
Source: bnnbloomberg.ca