Broke and broken, Botswana Railways call on investors for help
Rather than full steam ahead, Botswana Railways (BR) are well off track, a long way from where they, and more importantly, the President, wants them to be!
Most of its locomotives are out of action and long overdue for maintenance, while the majority of its wagons are parked up as they have nothing to do.
To add to its woes, the parastatal also struggles to pay salaries on time.
However, despite these deep-rooted problems, which date back years, President Duma Boko has big plans for the struggling State-Owned Enterprise (SOE).
Demanding a quick turnaround, Boko wants BR to have resolved its long-standing issues before the end of the year; in fact, the President expects the organisation to be making a profit before 2025 is over!
In an exclusive interview with Voice Money, Acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Chelesile Malele revealed Boko’s vision is only possible if investors come onboard to fix the locomotives, repair the infrastructure and build new facilities.
With only seven months of the year remaining, it is a tough ask!
“The reason why Botswana Railways is not making profit right now is because our assets are parked; the locomotives and wagons are overdue for maintenance and we don’t have the money to repair them. We have about 1, 155 wagons and only 465 of them are in use. We have 31 locomotives and only about 10 are in use, the others are also due for maintenance and we don’t have the money, but the customers are there, business is there. Our track capacity is 4.5 million tonnes, but we can only move about 1 million tonnes, because we don’t have enough rolling stock, and we don’t have the money to maintain,” admitted the acting CEO.
Malele intends to engage investors to help repair the rotten assets, buy new assets and repair the infrastructure through Public Private Partnership (PPP) and other models.
“Botswana Railways has potential to return to profit in the shortest time possible if the investors come on board,” she reiterated.
With several railway line projects in the pipeline, Malele said once up-and-running, such projects will boost business.
The Mmamabula-Lephalale railway line design and feasibility study are at an advanced stage, although groundbreaking is not expected until next June.
“Our first project is the Mmamabule-Lephalale railway line which will be the second exit to the South African ports, which is about 113 kilometers with 71 kilometers on the Botswana side. It will increase our capacity from from 4.5 million tones to about 7.5 million tonnes in its first year of operation. We also have Mosetse – Livingstone railway project which is about 436 kilometers, with 360 kilometers on the Botswana side,” she said.
The Acting BR boss told Voice Money the parastatal is building a new maintenance workshop in Mahalapye which will ease the cost of sending locomotives to South Africa for service. The workshop will also provide service for other countries in the SADC region.
Furthermore, the Trans Kalahari railway line is also expected to boost BR, although the scheme is several years behind schedule.
Meanwhile, Botswana Railways is working on a partnership with a private investor who will conduct a market survey on what the customers want for the passenger train and how it should operate.
However, Malele did not commit on the timeline of its return.
