Chairperson, this Transnet Pension Fund Amendment Bill is obviously part of the broader restructuring of Transnet. I am pleased to say that the word "restructuring" is no longer, if it ever was, a fig-leaf word to cover up the p-word: privatisation. We are talking here about restructuring Transnet essentially to develop well-focused state-owned enterprises and public utilities and, in particular, to separate out the key freight logistics function from the airline - the national carrier: SA Airways - and the commuter-rail functions.
In parenthesis, Minister Erwin, while we have you here on this topic, I think we must be careful in this restructuring that we don't allow the critical areas in which there is an interface between commuting or passenger-rail services and freight logistics to slip between the cracks. I am thinking in particular of rural branch lines or Southern African trade routes, which often involve rail passengers and also people carrying goods. I think we must make sure that we don't allow that critical dimension to slip.
On the issue in front of us: the merger in December last year of the SA Rail Commuter Corporation and Metrorail put an end to what, I think, was an anomalous institutional arrangement. We had the Rail Commuter Corporation falling under the Department of Transport, acting essentially as a money conduit for the operating subsidy - some R2 billion to R3 billion a year - which went to Metrorail. Metrorail was then answerable not to the Department of Transport but to the Transnet board and, in turn, to the Department of Public Enterprises.
This institutional arrangement was a legacy, I think, of the late 1990s when we were getting ready to concession out chunks of the commuter-rail system. Unfortunately, in doing that we lost time. Fortunately for us others went ahead of us - in New Zealand, in Argentina and in the United Kingdom they went ahead with concessioning out passenger-rail services. That has been an unmitigated disaster in those countries; they are trying to reverse some of the problems. Luckily, we didn't go that far.
Obviously, a key complication with this merger, which went ahead in December, has been the vested pension rights of Metrorail employees as they've come over to the Rail Commuter Corporation. We would really like to welcome the innovative and consultative way in which this was done and the equitable, I think, proposals in front of us in terms of the amendment to the Transnet Pension Fund. As we proceed, we also need to bear in mind that Shosholoza Meyl employees, currently under Transnet, will be also coming across to the Rail Commuter Corporation in due course. We need to make sure that they are adequately consulted and that their concerns are provided for. Thank you, Chair.