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This past weekend, a loaded export coal train with 208 wagons derailed at Dassieshoogte, near Vryheid, while on its way to Richards Bay. A total of 30 wagons went off the tracks, costing the SOE and country a substantial amount of money.
Taking place on Saturday, 3 July 2021—thankfully, no injuries were reported, but the fact that Transnet is facing costly challenges is a reality.
While the last time a derailment occurred in this spot was in 2009, Transnet says this is the second significant derailment on the coal line since the beginning of the financial year. During the course of May, they noted a derailment near Ermelo, Mpumalanga.
Nevertheless, the line was cleared by Sunday afternoon, 4 July, and over the next few days, will be operating a single line for approximately 11km. “Transnet is working around the clock to clear the balance of the wagons so that the repair work can commence on line 1.”
Though the frequency is not high, the freight rail utility emphasises these derailments have severe consequences for the SA coal value chain, their customers, Transnet, and the SA economy at large.
Furthermore, Transnet states that on Sunday, the Group Chief Executive, Portia Derby, the Freight Rail Chief Executive Sizakele Mzimela, and teams responsible for the incident investigation, including Technology Management and Transnet Engineering, visited the site at Dassieshoogte for an array of reasons. With Transnet affirming it would be reviewing all derailments experienced in recent months to identify trends concerning causes and contributing factors.
This is all fair and well, but when looking at the bigger picture, the problem comes with the reality that Transnet appears to have neglected a colossal problem and is now kicking upstream to address the matter.
“What is clear to us is that things have to change. There are serious risks in a recovery system based on emergency procurement, which may be open to abuse not only internally, but by suppliers who benefit from such incidents occurring. As part of addressing this challenge, we will be insourcing more of this work, and reducing our reliance on external service providers.” This is the operating model Transnet used many years ago, which was subsequently changed for some reason. Noting, much of this skill is still available within the organisation and therefore needs to be utilised more optimally.
Concerningly and opening up a wealth of questions, Transnet says, “We will additionally be requiring proper certification of partners at our facilities. Not only must our partners be suitably qualified, they must be contractually accountable for non-performance. This should ensure a more transparent and accountable relationship between all the role players responsible for the success of these corridors.”
Despite the above, Transnet claims they are progressing well with setting up new structures introduced to see increased authority to Corridor Executives and their leadership teams, with the aim to increase accountability whilst increasing the speed of execution.
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