• Transnet will invest ZAR 127 billion ($7.3 billion) over five years to modernise rail and port infrastructure.

• The company targets 250 million tonnes of annual rail freight by 2030, up from 152 million tonnes in 2023/24.

• Underinvestment, vandalism and governance issues have driven exporters to shift cargo from rail to road.

Transnet plans to invest ZAR 127 billion over five years to modernise rail lines and port infrastructure, according to local media citing Chief Executive Michelle Phillips. The company wants to improve a strategic but ageing network whose deterioration has damaged raw material exports.

“We are investing to restore the reliability and performance of the South African logistics system,” Phillips says during the South Africa Tomorrow Investor Conference, running since Tuesday, 21 October 2025. Transnet spent ZAR 24 billion on infrastructure in 2024 and expects to reach ZAR 25 billion this year. These increases mark a break from years of underinvestment that weakened coal, manganese and iron-ore freight corridors, pillars of South Africa’s external trade.

Transnet has launched major maintenance works, including a 10-day shutdown for upgrades on the iron-ore corridor. It will also boost port productivity by installing new cranes and equipment at facilities including Durban.

The company targets 250 million tonnes of annual rail freight by 2030, compared with 152 million tonnes in 2023/24. Rail volumes had reached 226 million tonnes in 2017/18 before the network decline.

Transnet attributes the drop in performance to vandalism, cable theft, shortages of equipment, governance failures and an increased shift to road transport. Exporters have relied on trucking to avoid rail delays.

The shift has protected export flows, but has pushed up logistics costs, strained road networks and increased environmental impacts.

This article was initially published in French by Henoc Dossa

Adapted in English by Ange Jason Quenum