TRANSPORT
THE MATTER OF PERSPECTIVE Research authors, Doctors Jean-Paul Rodrigue and Theo Notteboom assert, in The Geography of Transport Systems, that the economic importance of the transportation industry can be assessed from both a macroeconomic and microeconomic perspective. At the macroeconomic level, the transportation system and mobility mechanisms benefits are linked to a level of output, employment and income within a national economy. In many developed countries transportation accounts for between 6% and 12% of the Gross National Product (GDP). In these instances, logistics costs can account for between 6% and 25% of the GDP and the value of all transportation assets, including infrastructure and vehicles, can easily account for half the GDP of an advanced economy. At the microeconomic level, transportation is linked to producer, consumer and distribution costs. The importance of specific transport activities and infrastructure can be assessed for each sector of the economy. Usually, higher income levels are associated with a greater share of transportation in consumption expenses. Transportation accounts, on average, for between 10% and 15% of household expenditures, while it accounts for around 4% of the costs of each unit of output in manufacturing.
SA’S TRANSPORT ROLE PLAYERS In SA, the Department of Transport (DoT) is responsible for the legislation and policies for rail, pipelines, roads, airports, harbours and the intermodal operations of public transport and freight. It is also responsible for conducting sector research, formulating legislation and policy to set the strategic direction of subsectors, assigning responsibilities to public entities, regulating through norms and standards, and monitoring and implementation. Chapter 4 of the National Development Plan (NDP) calls for the economic infrastructure as the foundation of social and economic development. In short, the policy’s objective is a result of ‘a
competitive and responsive economic infrastructure network of government’. Transnet, South African Airways (SAA) and the South African Express (SAX) fall under the Department of Public Enterprise, as these are classified as commercial role players. Transnet, a state-owned company (SOC), is responsible for a number of transport modes and sites that ferry goods and services across South Africa and into and out of the country. In fact, this month the SOC celebrated 110 years of existence. Its mandate is to contribute to lowering the cost of doing business in SA, enable economic growth and ensure security of supply by providing appropriate port, rail and pipeline infrastructure in a costeffective and efficient manner. Furthermore, Transnet is the largest freight logistics company in the country enabling competitiveness, growth and the development of the country’s economy by delivering reliable freight transport and handling services that satisfy customer demand. Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) regulates and manages the seven ports from Richards Bay to Saldanha through which products such as coal, manganese, iron ore, motor vehicles and agricultural goods are exported and imported. The port terminals through which containers, ferried across the country by rail and road, are loaded and offloaded, and other container terminal sites such as the one at City Deep in Johannesburg and Durban are under the management of Transnet Port Terminals (TPT). Transnet Freight Rail (TFR) is responsible for the rail net that links SA to Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Swaziland and provinces, cities, towns and regions within SA. TFR runs the longest train in the world – with 375 wagons – between Thabazimbi and Saldanha and from Sishen to Saldanha. Lastly, the fuel that is utilised across SA at various fuel outlets is carried through pipelines managed by Transnet Pipelines (TPL). As you can see, through TFR, TPT and TPL, Transnet contributes greatly to economic growth.
THE FUTURE OF SA TRANSPORT South Africa has one of the most developed transport infrastructures on the African continent. The holding of the Soccer World Cup in 2010 provided a further impetus to the transportation infrastructure through the development and improvement of airports and road infrastructure. Unfortunately, the rail infrastructure did not benefit to that extent. The use of other transportation modes such as drones and scooters have proved useful during election time in many countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which has a vast terrain. In SA there are already individual entrepreneurs who use their own personal vehicles to transport commuters to the airport, documents and hardware from one place to another and so on. The possibilities are there for many, for small and medium enterprises to invest in such modes of transport. In general, transport systems have to be efficient and provide the desired economic and social opportunities and benefits the world has opened for humanity – in order to be a ‘Reliable Mover of the Economy’. Equally, and inversely, inefficient and deficient systems provide economic costs or opportunities that may never be recovered – and thus become ‘Immobilisers of the Economy’.
DR POPO MOLEFE CHAIRPERSON OF TRANSNET
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