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Logistics and transport experts say Transnet’s plan to get single line rail operations from Durban to Gauteng restored by the second week of June may be too optimistic given the extensive flood damage to the system.
There is significant concern, and rightfully so, about the outlook for fuel prices and security of supply following Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine in late February. No country is immune from the fallout and South Africa, which is a crude and fuel importer, is expected to feel the effects initially in higher prices, largely because imported fuel inflation will spill over into domestic inflation. Likewise, food inflation will probably also rise, owing to the fact that Russia and Ukraine collectively account for 30% of global wheat exports.
Transnet lost 8.5 million litres of fuel valued at R102 million in the 2019/20 financial year alone.
While fuel prices soar, South Africa loses millions of litres each year to sophisticated gangs of petrol thieves. We visit Vrede, a town at the centre of the fuel theft racket, to learn how these syndicates terrorise farmworkers and why this war will be very difficult to win.
Transnet Pipelines spokesperson Saret Knoetze says only two people have been prosecuted to date from 155 arrests.