The exodus of resignations continues unabated at Transnet as another CEO, Siza Mzimela, resigned on Thursday.
Mzimela’s resignation comes hot on the heels on the exit of Transnet CEO Portia Derby and Chief Financial Officer Nonkululeko Dlamini, who quit recently.
On Thursday afternoon, Transnet confirmed the news and said it had appointed Russell Baatjies as “acting TFR CE with effect from November 1”. A recruitment process for a permanent CE is underway.
Mzimela was the CEO of Transnet Freight Rail (TFR) and has been at the helm of the freight rail services for the past three years. On Thursday she sent out a letter to her team telling them that she had resigned.
She encouraged her staff to continue working hard to make sure that TRF achieves its goals toward better services for Transnet.
Transnet, the country’s rail, port and pipeline company, has been facing operational challenges including a scandal that was reported by the Sunday Times a week ago that a criminal syndicate had pocketed up to R50million in kickbacks by running “ghost train” operations with the aim of looting coal transported through the rail.
Based on the report, the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) was tasked with investigating the criminal network, which is also allegedly run by Transnet employees, who allegedly worked with the syndicate through adding more trains on the rail network to loot coal.
Mzimela also stated a series of challenges within her line of work which she said were hampering her efforts to work effectively. These included theft and vandalism, lack of locomotives as well as lack of tools to do the job properly for TFR.
She told her staff to soldier on as she thanked them for supporting her in the past three years.
“You have all taught me the art of resilience and the will to wake up every single day, striving to make a difference. You continued to demonstrate dedication even when the odds were against you. With solutions to the key impediments mentioned, the current war zone will return to normality and TFR will be fully equipped to truly play its role of circulating the lifeblood of the South African economy,” said Mzimela in her letter addressed to the staff.
When asked for comment on the resignation of Mzimela, the Department of Public Enterprises spokesperson, Ellis Mnyandu, referred Sunday World to two previous statements issued by the department in September regarding Transnet matters.
On September 1, minister of Public Enterprises Pravin Gordhan stated that the was a decisive and radical action to turnaround Transnet, where he said that the 2022/2023 performance, together with the Auditor General’s critical findings, had called for urgent and corrective action, particularly within the TFR division.
“Minister Gordhan and the newly appointed Transnet board are fully aligned on the urgent need to turnaround the operational performance and financial position of Transnet. Transnet is at an inflection point. The deterioration in its operational and financial performance will be stopped. Nothing will be allowed to get in the way of the effective implementation of a radical plan – with some changes being evident in the short term and others taking longer given the complexity of the entity,” read the statement from the department.
In its financial year, Transnet posted a loss of R5.7million, with the state-owned entity’s debt reached R130billion.
This story has been updated with new information
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