South Africa to unveil private-rail investment rules by February

South Africa plans to complete a framework for private companies to use state-owned port and rail infrastructure within six months, Transport Minister Barbara Creecy said, a move that could help the government solve severe logistics constraints that have hit economic growth.

The framework will serve as a guide on how the government works with third parties, and will pave the way for it to call for interested companies to make proposals, she told reporters Tuesday in Johannesburg. 

“I’m pushing that it has to be concluded within the next six months,” said Creecy, who took the job in July under South Africa’s new multiparty administration. “We can then go ahead and look at the introduction of third-party participation in different forms.”South Africa’s rail network and ports are creaking after years of underinvestment, corruption scandals and vandalism. That costs the economy billions of dollars yearly as bulk mineral exports from coal to chrome and iron ore are stranded. 

The nation’s cabinet late last year approved the principle of third-party participation in port and rail, and the private sector participation framework will lay out how this will work.