By Larry Claasen
RONNIE Ntuli, the founder and chairman of the Thelo Group of companies, has ambitious goals.
The Thelo Group, which owns 40 locomotives and 200 wagons in five countries in sub-Saharan Africa, is expanding out of leasing its rolling stock to rail operators, into developing, running and maintaining five transport corridors on the continent.
This change will see it raise $250-million (R4,6-billion), and broaden its offering into providing integrated transport and logistics infrastructure solutions – in partnership with German rail group Deutsche Bahn.
Ntuli said the idea is to improve rail infrastructure, such as signalling equipment and rail switching, in partnership with Deutsche Bahn.
“The infrastructure [in the countries it operated in] was generally in a state of disrepair, and the capacity really was not up to standard in terms of operational efficiency,” he said.
Ntuli said the participation of Deutsche Bahn could not be underestimated, as it brought almost unmatched technical expertise to the partnership.
“Deutsche Bahn is the German national railway company, but arguably the number one fully integrated rail group globally.”
Ntuli said developing the corridors is part of a more ambitious vision. The overall goal is to develop the five corridors into an integrated transcontinental transport system.
The corridor that has progressed the furthest is the $3,2-billion, 300km Western Railway Line in Ghana, which will transport freight and other bulk commodities from Obuasi to Takoradi Harbour.
Thelo has also been shortlisted for the development of the 1 500km long Trans-Kalahari Corridor between Mmamabula, Botswana and the port of Walvis Bay in Namibia.
It is also part of one of the consortiums shortlisted by Transnet to develop a deep-water port and transport corridor at the mooted green hydrogen project at Boegoebaai in the Northern Cape.
Ntuli said more deals were being negotiated.
“We are in bilateral discussions with other governments on the continent where there are tangible freight volumes today. I can’t mention the countries, but they are very strategic jurisdictions we’re trying to integrate.”
Ntuli’s vision, however, is broader than ensuring that commodities are more easily brought to ports from mostly landlocked countries. Instead, he sees it as a step toward increasing the pace of industrialisation in Africa.
“We don’t have sufficient industrial capacity. And you can’t have industrial capacity if you don’t have infrastructure.”
Ntuli, however, admits that fulfilling this vision is not easy.
To have an integrated transcontinental transport system in sub-Saharan Africa, the various rail licensing and safety authorities, operators, and governments must develop a unified approach to running such a network.
“We need to start standardising the infrastructure, the signalling, and train operating systems and rolling stock.”
When this happens, rail operators from different countries will not only be able to run their trains more efficiently in foreign markets, but also enable the track owners to recognise whose trains are running on their tracks and charge them accordingly.
Ntuli said Deutsche Bahn’s participation can be especially helpful here, as it has extensive experience operating in Europe’s integrated rail network.
Despite the difficulty of implementing this type of integration, Ntuli noted that it aligned with the goal of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), which is to create a single market on the continent.
A World Bank report has found that the African trade pact could boost regional income 7% ($450-billion) and lift 30-million people out of extreme poverty by 2035.
