Transnet Freight Rail blames cable theft for delays

Spokesman Sandile Simelane last week said cable theft had resulted in the cancellation of several trains hauling coal from Mpumalanga to the terminal.

Cable theft is the latest in a string of problems facing the division, including derailments, signalling problems and a lack of capacity on the coal line. Transnet Freight Rail is Transnet's biggest unit by revenue.

“If coal consignments fail to reach their international destinations on time, the country's reputation will suffer as global markets will view SA as unreliable and inefficient,” Simelane said.

He said the division had rescheduled the affected trains to recover the lost traffic.

He declined to confirm the extent to which cable theft had affected rail coal volumes.

Cable theft in the Ermelo-Ogies region in the past few weeks had seriously disrupted the freight rail division's traffic to and from the coal terminal. He said the division was battling to monitor about 23000km of railway tracks — a situation aggravated by its limited security resources.

Simelane said cable theft had become a particular problem for the company in the past two months. He said Transnet Freight Rail had identified cable-theft hot spots.

Several syndicates had been broken and arrests had been made.

The escalation of cable theft, he said, often led to damage of the group's assets.

Aside from the costs of replacing the cables, “locomotives and wagons can cost the company millions of rand in repairs and replacement”.

Simelane declined to quantify these financial losses as the transport parastatal was in a closed reporting period.

Source: Business Day

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