South Africa’s disintegrating freight railway is crippling firms

The roadsKZNgdp in the north of Kwa-Zulu Natal (), South Africa’s second-most-populated province, were once sedate. Lorries carrying timber or sugar cane from nearby plantations would trundle past, overtaken occasionally by tourists heading to game reserves. But these days hundreds of roar through small towns on their way to the port of Richards Bay. In September one lorry rammed into a pickup in the oncoming lane, killing 20 passengers, near the town of Pongola. “Our roads aren’t meant for this amount of traffic,” says Mike Patterson, from the local chamber of commerce. “The coal should be taken by rail.”Indeed it should. But South Africa’s freight rail network is in such bad shape that firms are struggling to move their goods. In 2017 trains hauled 81m tonnes of coal to export terminals. This year about 54m tonnes will go that way; lorries will carry only another 9m. The decline reflects a missed opportunity: international coal prices soared last year after Russia invaded Ukraine. The gap between what coal miners could dig and what they could export last year represents a loss of at least 80bn rand ($4.7bn), estimates Jan Havenga of Stellenbosch University. Other miners and manufacturers report similar deficits. The total hit to South African firms from lost exports and the extra costs of going by road will amount to about 400bn rand in 2022 (6% of ), says Mr Havenga.