South Africa’s transport reset is now visible where it matters most, at the ports and on the rail lines that carry the country’s exports and imports. Faster terminals, new capital and private operators are turning logistics from a constraint into a source of competitiveness.
The Durban Port is undergoing significant change, with vessel queues having fallen from as many as 17 to 20 ships in 2023 to about six by March 2026. Transnet’s 25-year agreement with International Container Terminal Services brought R11-billion in investment and increased container capacity from two million to 2.8 million. Richards Bay is moving in the same direction, with coal exports holding a 60 million tonne annualised run rate in January, while Transnet seeks a private partner to lift dry bulk terminal capacity by 45%, from 18.5 million to nearly 27 million tonnes a year.
By providing capital, operating discipline and specialist skills while allowing the state to retain strategic control over essential infrastructure, public-private partnerships offer clear business value. They also shorten delivery timelines, reduce congestion and improve asset utilisation. For exporters, miners, retailers and manufacturers, the main gain is throughput, because every hour saved at a port or terminal lowers cost and improves cash flow.
Rail reform is moving in the same direction, evidenced by the August 2025 approval of 11 private train operating companies to run freight services across 41 routes on six corridors. That decision marked a major opening of the freight rail market, with the new operators expected to add capacity, attract private investment and help shift more cargo onto rail.
Traxtion, one of Africa’s largest private rail freight operators, has emerged as a leading example of what the reform can unlock. Its rolling stock initiative represents one of the largest private freight rail investments in national history, having successfully finalised an $86-million equity raise supported by Standard Bank, Stanlib Infrastructure Investments and the PIC’s equity partner, Harith. This funding secures 46 locomotives and 920 wagons, creating more than 660 direct jobs. Concurrently, African Rail Company is seeking to raise an additional $170-million.
Traxtion has said its Rosslyn operation refurbishes locomotives and trains workers, which makes the business more than an operator — it is also an industrial and skills platform. That matters because modern freight rail depends on usable assets, not only on network access, and the Rosslyn hub helps create that capability inside South Africa rather than importing it wholesale.
Research conducted by the Lagos-based research group Mohac Africa found that a 10% increase in transport infrastructure investment correlates with a 2.2% rise in employment. That link matters because it connects infrastructure spending to jobs, freight flow and lower logistics costs directly and practically. It also explains why transport is no longer a narrow engineering issue. It is a jobs issue, a trade issue and a competitiveness issue for the whole economy.
The scale of the investment challenge is large, but the direction of travel is clear. Transport Minister Barbara Creecy’s National Rail Master Plan sets out a long-term rail investment need of about R2-trillion. Within that wider picture, Prasa has committed R137-billion to its passenger rail programme, and Transnet has committed R127-billion over five years to improve its commercial infrastructure.
Reinforcing this opportunity, the continental context includes the European Union’s Global Gateway strategy, which aims to mobilise up to €400-billion by 2027 for global connectivity. In Africa, this includes the Lobito Corridor, the Maputo-Rasseno Garcia Railway and the Mombasa-Kisangani Corridor. These projects show that South Africa is operating inside a wider race for logistics capacity, trade access and industrial relevance. Countries across the continent are now competing to own the routes, assets and partnerships that move minerals, food and manufactured goods efficiently.
South Africa’s own export corridors remain the backbone of the business case. The Sishen-Saldanha line carries iron ore, the North and Northeast corridors carry coal and chrome, and the Cape corridor moves manganese to Saldanha Bay.
When an operator secures capacity on these routes, it can support a contract with predictable freight revenue, which makes the project bankable rather than speculative. That is why private participation matters so much. It converts latent infrastructure into productive commercial capacity and gives lenders a basis on which to fund expansion with confidence.
Institutional capital
The Public Investment Corporation (PIC) further reinforces this approach by demonstrating how institutional capital can complement private and commercial funding instead of competing with it. The PIC became the 36th shareholder of Africa50 in 2025 through a $40-million investment, and it also committed $100-million in equity to the Africa Finance Corporation in 2022.
Within South Africa, the PIC holds large Transnet and Sanral bond positions. This matters because South Africa has the deepest and most liquid capital markets in Africa, which gives it an edge in funding bankable infrastructure. That depth can be used to crowd in additional investors once projects are structured properly and risk is shared sensibly.
The central constraint is therefore a shortage of ready projects rather than a lack of money. Commercial banks, pension funds, development finance institutions and infrastructure platforms have shown growing appetite once feasibility is sound and risk is shared properly.
The country now needs a pipeline of investable schemes that can absorb capital quickly and deliver results. That is the real meaning of the current reform moment. Beyond repairing rail and ports, this transformation establishes logistics as a credible growth engine for exporters, industry and the broader economy.
There is also a wider strategic reason to move quickly. Demand for rare-earth elements is projected to triple by 2035, manganese exports reached record volumes in 2025, and platinum group metals remain central to the transition toward cleaner automotive technologies.
The rare-earths project at Phalaborwa is already progressing toward its 2026 feasibility study. Every one of those commercial opportunities depends on the same basic requirement: reliable movement from mine to port and from port to market. South Africa can either treat that as a defensive repair job or as an offensive economic strategy.
The business case is now compelling, as better ports lower dwell times, boost shipper confidence and improve exporter margins. Better rail means more freight on a lower-cost network, more capacity for miners and more certainty for manufacturers.
The private sector is already showing that it will put capital to work when the rules are clear and the asset base is credible. South Africa’s challenge is to keep that momentum, build the pipeline and turn reform into scale. DM