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Satawu, July 2006

Introduction

South Africa differs from many countries in that its’ industrial heart is not on the coast. The fact that the mining, manufacturing and financial sectors are concentrated in the inland province of Gauteng, combined with the fact that South African economy is highly dependent on exports, has impacted on the way in which the transport network has developed. The country’s road, rail and air networks tend to spoke outwards from Gauteng (with Johannesburg at the centre) towards the coastal ports.  

South Africa’s dominant export trade route is the Far East (40% of exports), followed by Continental Europe (36%), the United Kingdom (12%), rest of Africa (12%), North America (3%) and South America (3%).1

South Africa has the lion’s share of Africa’s transport infrastructure, giving an indication of the country’s economic dominance on the continent. South Africa has only 5% of Africa’s population and constitutes 3,6% of its land mass. But it has 32% of Africa’s railway route kms, 61% of the continents rail tonnage, 15% of sub-Saharan roads, and 82% of sub-Saharan motorways.

The transport industry employs around 420,000 workers if the minibus taxi sector is included.

The rail network
The first railway locomotive was landed in Cape Town in 1859, and the first public railway was officially opened in Durban in 1860. This railway ran a short distance from the Point (in the port) to the centre of Durban. Railways developed in each of the British colonies of the Cape, Natal and the Transvaal and were consolidated into the South African Railways in 1910 after the Union settlement reached to end the Anglo Boer War.2

The primary rail network is owned and operated by the state owned company Spoornet, itself a subsidiary of the larger state-owned transport group, Transnet. Spoornet operates on 23,000 km of track. The national network primarily transports freight, though Spoornet does operate a long distance passenger service between the major centres. The passenger service, known as Shosholoza Meyl, carries 4 million passengers a year.

Spoornet employs 28,000 people. It currently has 8% of market share by value, but has plans to increase this to 30% of market share. Road freight currently has a market share of about 80% despite being 40% more expensive than rail. Over the next five years Spoornet will be spending R31bn on upgrades and fleet modernization in order to create new capacity. Currently Spoornet moves 80mt general freight, which the company intends doubling in five years. 68.7mt coal is carried, primarily from the coal fields of Mpumalanga province and northern Kwa Zulu Natal to Richards Bay on the Indian Ocean coast, from where it is exported. Demand is expected to increase to 92m tons by 2010. The company carries 29.6mt iron ore annually for export on the 861 km line from the mines in Sishen (Northern Cape) to Saldanha Bay on the Atlantic coast.3

The rail guage in South Africa is narrow, being 1,067mm. Not all of the network is electrified, and there are some parts of the electrified network that work off DC voltage and others that work off AC voltage. Spoornet’s loco fleet is therefore a mixture of electric (DC and AC) and diesel. The DC (3000 Volt) classes of electric loco are 6E, 10E, and 18E. The AC (25,000 Volt) classes are 7E and 11E. Four 11E locos can pull up to 200 coal wagons weighing 10,400 tons each. Such trains are 2.5 km long and weigh a total of 26,000 tons, making them some of the longest and heaviest in the world. New AC/DC electric locos are on order which will be able to increase wagon loads to 300.

There is an additional 8,000km of track owned and operated by private companies. Most of these operations are located within mining property (including underground).

The rail industry is supported by the loco and wagon manufacture and repair company Transwerk, which is a subsidiary of Transnet. The company employs 12,000 people.

Ports

South Africa has seven commercial ports, all owned and controlled by the National Ports Authority, a subsidiary of the state-owned Transnet group. The ports are Richards Bay, Durban, Saldanha, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, East London, and Mossel Bay. A new port, Ngqura, is being developed near Port Elizabeth.

In 2002/03 the seven ports handled 166.5mt break bulk and bulk cargoes, with Richards Bay handling 52% of this (mainly coal). The privately operated Richards Bay Coal Terminal is the biggest of its kind in the world. Durban accounted for 23% of the bulk and break bulk cargoes in 2002/03.

In 2004/05 the ports handled 2.8m containers, with Durban handling 60% of these. The second largest container port is Cape Town, followed by Port Elizabeth.4

South African Port Operations (Sapo), which is a subsidiary of the state owned Transnet, dominates in container handling, vehicles and general cargo. Private operators dominate in the bulk sector.

Durban is the busiest port in terms of vessel arrivals. In 2002/03 there were 4570 vessel arrivals in Durban (32% of total for all ports). Cape Town and Richards Bay each see 27% of vessel arrivals, Port Elizabeth 9%, and Saldanha and East London 3% each.5

Durban Container Terminal has grown from moving 6,000 teu’s a month in 1979 to 100,000 today. It has a quayside of 2128m and operates on a continuous basis to and from seven berths. It has 13,500 ground slots which are fed by a fleet of modern straddle carriers. Durban’s port’s container capacity will be increased by a further 2,500 ground slots when the conversion of a general cargo terminal is completed.6

Durban port also has a busy car terminal. The terminal, which opened in 2003, is a three storey structure with 3,800 parking bays and an overpass linking the terminal with the quayside. It has an annual capacity for 175,000 car units for import and export. Port Elizabeth and East London ports also have car terminals serving the motor industry in the Eastern Cape.7

Air transport

The sector is dominated by South African Airways, but there are five other commercial airlines that operate within the country. SAA is currently wholly owned by the state, unlike the others which are in the private sector. The airports are only part owned by the state.

The aviation sector employs 20,700 people8, of whom 12,000 are employed by SAA. SAA carries 6.5m passengers annually. It flies to 700 national and international destinations and its’ technical arm, SAA Technical provides the largest aircraft maintenance facility in Africa.9

The air transport sector accounts for 15% of income in the freight transport sector in South Africa.10

Road freight transport, the road network, and road accidents and fatalities

The road freight sector (both own account and for gain) carries 83% of market share by tonnage. There are approximately 60,000 freight vehicles in operation. 57% of companies outsource road freight functions, compared to 94% in Europe.11

3,100 contract road freight hauliers employ 75,000 workers. Workers performing transport functions within other industries are not calculated in transport statistics, and tend to be organised by the trade unions of those industries.

South Africa has a network of 264,000 kms of roads, 30% of which are paved. 6,000 kms of road are national motorways.

The death rate on South Africa’s roads is ten times higher than the UK, seven times higher than the US, and five times higher than France. 12,300 people were killed on South Africa’s roads in 2005 – half of them pedestrians. Road accidents cost the economy R38bn in 2005.

Passenger transport

For a country with a relatively low average household income, South Africa has a high rate of car ownership. For every 1000 people, there are 109 cars owned. This compares to 15 per 1000 in Lagos, 50 in Nairobi, and 500 in New York.12

The high car ownership rate means that 32% of commuters travel by private car. 25% travel by minibus taxi, 23% walk, 8% go by bus, and 6% by train. The remaining 6% travel by other means including bicycle and animal drawn vehicles.13

One of the reasons for the high rate of private car ownership is the poor quality and high cost of public transport. Public transport has recently been described by the chairperson of the transport portfolio committee in parliament as being in a state of crisis. Train users complain bitterly about overcrowding and security issues, whereas bus users complain about the absence of facilities at bus stops and the infrequency of services at off peak times. Minibus taxi commuters complain about accidents, the un-roadworthiness of vehicles, and the absence of facilities at taxi ranks.

A third of all households spend more than 10% of their monthly income on public transport, and 58% of all workers spend over 10% of their personal income on public transport. Half a million school learners walk for over two hours a day to get to and from school, either because there is no public transport available or because it is too expensive.14

The commuter train system is operated in six metropolitan regions by state owned Metrorail. The carries 1,7m paying passengers every week day, and has a 14,7% share of the public passenger market. It serves 471 stations with 279 train sets and 3290 coaches.15 Rail is the cheapest form of public transport in most urban areas, but it’s reach is limited.

The bus sector, which is largely in private hands, has a 19% share of the public passenger market. There are 15,000 buses in service doing 720m passenger trips per annum. The industry employs 34,500 people directly. 16 Most commuter services are subsidized, with subsidies being channeled by provincial governments. Contracts are currently awarded either through competitive tendering or through negotiated contracts. The competitive tendering system has severely undermined the working conditions of bus workers.

The minibus taxi sector (or kombi taxi sector as it is locally known) has grown enormously in the past twenty years. There are about 130,000 kombi taxis in operation, most of them owned by small operators. The sector employs approximately 185,000 workers as drivers, queue marshals and administrators.17 Government is in the process of attempting to tighten up regulation of the sector by enforcing a permit system and encouraging the scrapping of old vehicles through the dispersement of scrapping allowances costing a total of R7bn. The taxi sector receives no other direct state subsidization.

Workers, unions, bargaining arrangements and wages in the transport industry

There are approximately 420,000 workers in the industry, with about a quarter of these employed in micro enterprises. About half are employed in large enterprises. Trade union density is around 40%. If the taxi sector is excluded, trade union density is closer to 55%.

There are eight trade unions organizing in the transport industry. The two ITF affiliates are the South African Tranport and Allied Workers’ Union (Satawu) and the Transport and Allied Workers Union (Tawusa). The other trade unions are Transport and Allied Workers Union of South Africa (Tawusa), Transport and Omnibus Workers’ Union (Towu), the South African Harbours and Railways Worker’s Union, United Association of South Africa, United Transport and Allied Workers’ Union, the Motor Transport Workers’ Union, and the Professional Transport Workers’ Union. Satawu, with 60,000 transport members, has the largest transport membership of all of the unions.

Centralised collective bargaining takes place in the road freight, bus, motor ferry and toll gate sectors. Collective bargaining in all other sectors, except the taxi sector, takes place at a company level. Minimum wages in the taxi sector are governed by a Sectoral Determination promulgated by government after consultation with labour and employers.

Minimum wages in the transport sector in 2006 are:
Road freight
Heavy duty truck driver    R3530 per month or R821 per week
General worker                R2160 per month or R498.82 per week

Taxi industry
Taxi driver                    R1350 per month or R6.49 per hour
Rank marshal                R1080 per month or R5.19 per hour

Bus industry
Bus driver                                     R2500 per month
General worker in the bus industry  R2225 per month

Rail sector
Train driver (qualified)       R7800 per month
Diesel mechanic                R6690 per month
Assistant train driver         R3500 per month               
General worker                R2750 per month
       
Ports
Straddle carrier and crane driver        R8500 per month
Cargo co-ordinator                           R6200 per month
Dispatcher                                      R5495 per month
Fork lift driver                    R3926 per month                   
General worker                R3400 per month

Aviation
Cabin crew                    R4500 per month (before allowances)