TFR: "Performance 'dismal'", says CEO Brian Molefe

[Steve Appleton]

From Business Day, 28 June 2011. http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/C ... ?id=147009

Performance of freight rail unit ‘dismal’
NICKY SMITH
Published: 2011/06/28 07:16:18 AM

TRANSNET, the state-owned rail and ports company, missed most of its efficiency and productivity targets in the financial year to the end of March.

The performance of the Transnet Freight Rail division, which accounts for about 59% of Transnet’s total revenue, was described by group CEO Brian Molefe as "dismal" yesterday.

In the general freight business a measure of efficiency and productivity is trains making on-time departures. This measures the average number of minutes trains are delayed before departing. In the 2010 financial year trains waited an average 160 minutes. Despite a less onerous target of 184 minutes this year, the actual delay in departures in the general freight business was 350 minutes, meaning Transnet missed its target by 90,2%.

The on-time arrivals target for general freight business was missed by 82,4% in the year with average delays of 434 minutes, from 265 minutes last year. The collapse in the performance of the business is attributed to a three-week strike combined with cable theft, rolling stock faults and derailments.

Of the 19 productivity and efficiency measures published by Transnet, the group fell short on 14 of those targets. In response, Transnet was returning to its model of offering scheduled train services, Mr Molefe said.

Transnet Freight Rail CEO Siyabonga Gama says scheduled services were abandoned in 2008 after the economic recession threw business planning for many companies into disarray. Transnet Freight Rail was obliged to stage its trains instead of having them run on time with no goods, he said yesterday. As much as 60% of services will now run on a schedule, he said.

Mr Molefe has also created new management teams that will now be responsible for specific commodities, such as coal, iron ore or manganese, instead of running them in teams for designated corridors. Instead of having the "eastern corridor people, we now have the coal people", he said. Establishing stability within Transnet Freight Rail after the discord of the past two years was expected to show in next year’s performance, Mr Molefe said.

For example, Mr Gama was in the middle of a larger mess, having been suspended, fired and rehired in the space of 18 months while at Transnet Freight Rail.

The uncertainty and leadership vacuum had slowed the company’s recovery from the wage strike, Mr Molefe said.