South Africa’s freight and logistics system is showing its most encouraging signs of recovery in more than a decade, but the chief executive of Business Leadership South Africa says the pace of reform is still dangerously slow for a country with more than eight million people out of work.
In her weekly newsletter, BLSA CEO Busi Mavuso welcomed a series of developments in South Africa’s ports and rail network while making clear that the gains, though real, fall well short of what the country needs. “With 8.1 million unemployed, growth is the only path to creating the jobs we desperately need,” she said. “And growth requires competitive logistics that enable our exporters to succeed in global markets.”
The backdrop to her remarks is sobering. South Africa’s unemployment rate climbed to 32.7% in the first quarter — up from 31.4% in the previous quarter — as the economy shed 345,000 jobs in a single three-month period. Mavuso said she agreed with Cosatu’s assessment that the figures were “beyond depressing”, but argued the response had to be a sharp acceleration of structural reform rather than despair.
On the ports side, the data offers genuine grounds for optimism. A total of 8,630 vessels called at South African ports in 2025 — a level not seen in 15 years — a development that Mavuso said was already bearing fruit for export industries. South Africa’s citrus sector overtook Spain last year to become the world’s largest citrus exporter by volume, a milestone she cited as direct evidence of what functional logistics infrastructure can deliver.
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Private investment is now flowing into the port network. Philippines-based International Container Terminal Services took over the Durban Gateway Terminal in January and is investing R11 billion to increase capacity by 40%. FFS Tank Terminals is taking over the Cape Town Liquid Bulk Terminal with close to R200 million committed to modernise infrastructure and double capacity. Transnet has also signed a 20-year agreement with FPT Group for the Durban Fresh Produce Terminal, and both the Richards Bay Dry Bulk Terminal and the Ngqura Manganese Export Corridor are being readied for private participation.
On rail, 11 private operators finalised contracts with Transnet Freight Rail Infrastructure to operate across various routes on the network — a development Mavuso described as a significant milestone after what she called difficult negotiations to ensure the deals were bankable. Those operators are collectively expected to add 24 million tonnes of freight capacity across coal, manganese, containers, fuel and general freight, with some expected to begin operating before the end of 2026.
Mavuso gave credit to Transport Minister Barbara Creecy and Transnet CEO Michelle Phillips for driving results. “These logistics and transport wins demonstrate what decisive leadership can achieve,” she said. “The reforms are delivering measurable results — record vessel volumes, billions in private investment, new rail capacity, progress on long-neglected problems.”
But her assessment is not without sharp criticism. BLSA’s own Reform Tracker, produced by research consultancy Krutham and monitoring 245 reform deliverables, recorded a 4% decline in the freight logistics index in the first quarter of 2026 — the steepest single-category drop of the period. The fourth Network Statement, which private rail operators and financiers have described as largely unbankable, remains unpublished past its February 2026 deadline. Mavuso has previously noted that Transnet continues to design the terms on which private investors access public infrastructure, leaving the state-owned enterprise simultaneously acting as referee and player in a market it is supposed to be opening up. “This framework explicitly incentivises Eskom and Transnet to put their interests first. As such, we have a situation where a state entity might push back, quite rationally from their perspective, against certain reforms,” she has said.
Her call to action is direct. The Network Statement must be completed without further delay. More port concessions must be finalised. Transaction terms must be rebalanced to genuinely enable private investment rather than entrench Transnet’s market dominance. “We’re moving in that direction, where growth and jobs await,” Mavuso said, “but we’re still years behind where we should be.”