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Government plans task team to split rail network from Transnet

Published

Government aims to set up a technical task team by the end of 2026 to finalise how it will corporatise the Transnet Rail Infrastructure Manager (TRIM). The move would place rail infrastructure management in a separate entity outside the Transnet Group.

The plan appears in the Operation Vulindlela Quarter 2 progress report. Operation Vulindlela is a government reform initiative under the Presidency. The Department of Transport drives the unbundling with it, and National Treasury provides oversight.

TRIM became a separate entity from Transnet Freight Rail in October 2024. In September, TRIM released the fourth version of its Network Statement, which includes public input. The Operation Vulindlela report said this version addresses key issues that industry raised to make rail investments bankable.

Jan Havenga, Professor of Logistics at Stellenbosch University, said this is the best news he has heard about Transnet in some time. He said Transnet carries heavy debt that current management inherited. He said an operator with its own balance sheet and problems clouds talk about the future of the rail lines, and he argued that Transnet could not drive this change itself.

Key facts

Who
Jan Havenga (Professor of Logistics at Stellenbosch University); Operation Vulindlela (government reform initiative under the Presidency whose Quarter 2 progress…); Transnet Rail Infrastructure Manager (rail infrastructure entity to be corporatised); Transnet Group (state-owned freight transport and logistics company)
What
The Operation Vulindlela Quarter 2 progress report says government aims to set up a technical task team by the end of the year to finalise how to corporatise TRIM, moving rail infrastructure management out of the Transnet Group into a separate entity. Stellenbosch University logistics professor Jan Havenga comments on the move.
When
4 November 2026
Where
South Africa
Status
Reported

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