Minister of Public Enterprises Pravin Gordhan says they are implementing a recovery plan to get Transnet back on track after months of poor performance.
Gordhan said they have asked the Transnet Board to oversee the implementation of the recovery plan.
The plan will be implemented from November 1.
Transnet has seen a drop in volumes over the last year, which impacted its balance sheet.
Gordhan was part of Ministers in the Economics cluster who was answering questions in Parliament on Wednesday.
Political parties said they were concerned that Transnet has not been able to improve its performance and this has a direct impact on the economy.
The National Union of Mineworkers warned recently that 35,000 mineworkers were set to lose their jobs because coal was no longer transported by rail. Trucks were now being used to transport coal.
Cosatu also said the poor performance of Transnet will lead to a jobs bloodbath in the mining sector because of the drop in volumes.
Transnet also lost senior officials in the last few weeks.
Transnet CEO Portia Derby resigned a few weeks ago, and she was followed by Chief Financial Officer Nonkululeko Dlamini.
Transnet Freight Rail CEO Siza Mzimela also resigned.
The resignation of Derby came after unions and businesses called for her head, following the poor performance of the logistics company and the Durban port.
Gordhan said they were beginning to implement the recovery plan for Transnet.
“We have assigned to the board key responsibility, we want to see the recovery in the recovery of Transnet, whether it is ports, whether it is rail or any other aspect of the key functions that they provide to this economy. We are going to be intolerant of lack of performance. The recovery plan, as we begin to implement it from November 1 onwards, will see improvements on all the different fronts.
“As I said earlier on, we need some creative financing that will enable Transnet to access additional equipment that it requires and we are working on that as well,” said Gordhan.
He said they were also working on improving the performance of the Durban port and that it should be able to take in more volumes.
siyabonga.mkhwanazi@inl.co.za
Politics