OPINION
Have MPs even read the Cabinet-adopted National Rail Policy White Paper?
Hard to work in a violence-prone circus
The stink over Transnet's plans to invite private sector participation into its business is permeating through the public discourse.
Following a presentation to the portfolio committee on public enterprises by Transnet CEO Portia Derby last week, MPs decried plans to encourage private sector participation, saying that the parastatal was not following government's mandate.
Transnet's majority union, the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (Satawu), rejected any move to "privatise" the entity, claiming any such plan would be "riddled with corruption".
It would seem that no one has bothered to read the latest National Rail Policy White Paper, which was adopted by Cabinet in March last year and which puts emphasis on private sector participation in South Africa's troubled railways.
The White Paper seeks to introduce "radical structural reforms" in the sector by "opening up space for private sector investment and effective economic regulation that enables equitable access to both the primary and secondary rail network".
Indeed, a key thrust of the White Paper is to enable investment in South Africa's railways to ensure a seamlessly integrated transport value chain can make a meaningful contribution to the economy.
Instead, rail's decline is quite clearly constraining economic growth and something drastic has to be done if the terminal decline of rail in South Africa is to be arrested.
The White Paper, if not just common sense, makes it clear government simply cannot fix this mess alone. The private sector is willing and able, all government has to do is let it in.
Will Eskom actually help generate some good statistics?
Electron accounting effects
South32 has unveiled its ambitions to "use" nuclear power from Koeberg in order to produce green aluminium, which will give it a major boost in eco-sensitive markets, notably the European Union.
The problem - if it's a problem - Hillside in Richard’s Bay is about 1 400km from Cape Town (as the Cabinet minister flies), or 1 900km by road (for the rest of us load-shed plebs)
Of course, South32 may just get allocated the right to cite nuclear electrons, not actually have nuclear ones wheeled across the country, but the 'green nuclear power' would still, in an accounting sense, be theirs. But what's a name in an electron anyway, and how much will it help the planet and its statistics?
South32 needs 900MW, about half of Koeberg’s output, though this is a drop in the ocean, or less than 0.1%, as the global aluminium industry consumed 843 222GW in 2021.
More than half of this was coal, globally, but SA will help with Africa’s overall numbers, with 0% of the continent’s aluminium being powered from this source in 2021.
Aluminium, in fact, is getting more fossil-fuelly, with the International Energy Agency reporting that the proportion of coal-powered aluminium has in fact increased, to 55.8% in 2020 from 52.6% a decade prior.
Hydropower’s contribution over the period fell to 30%, from 40%, with the bad statistical trend due to China (half of world production now, has ramped up) due to its heavy reliance on coal (more than 80% of all power).
Not all the trends from China are bad, though, with the IEA also noting its installation of world-class production facilities during its ramp up has seen it go from one of the most energy-intensive producer of the metals, to one of the least.
So, SA’s stats are at odds with the whole "it’s a small world after all" thing, and unlikely to shift the needle much. But, at the end of the day Eskom could end up finally helping a little with statistics, not producing some that literally hurt to look at.
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— JPG (@WhySouth) February 20, 2023
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Previously:
STOCK TAKE | Eskom's tough lessons for a zombie apocalypse
STOCK TAKE | Spar's flawed thinking
STOCK TAKE | Nampak is boxed in a corner
STOCK TAKE | Steinhoff's unsettling future for shareholders, and Telkom loses its suitors
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