Exploring the role of the public sector in revitalising rail transport in South Africa

Abstract

The rail system in South Africa has been around for hundreds of years. It played a major role in the development of the economy. Today, it is in systemic decline where the infrastructure hardly works. The system is marred with unreliable operation. Additionally, there is a significant diversion of market share from rail freight to road freight. The decrease has significant economic costs, said to be about R1 billion each day, and worsen social and spatial disparities. Although the public sector is supposed to spearhead the revitalisation, its effectiveness is seriously hampered by widespread governance failures and a serious lack of credible and usable data. The study will explore and critically examine the public sector's role in the revitalisation of rail transport in South Africa with specific reference to the challenges of governance and data issues. Based on a realist research paradigm, the study used a convergent parallel mixed methods design. A purposively chosen sample of 30 rail sector experts drawn from public entities, government departments and the private sector were used to gather the data via a single survey instrument. The analysis of the quantitative data for Likert-scale questions was done through descriptive statistics. Thematic analyses were done for the qualitative data of open-ended ones. It was integrated during interpretation. Outcomes indicate that the area is in an institutional crisis. Quantitative results indicate the severity of political interference (GOV1 mean=4.43) and no data available for strategic decisions (DATA1 mean=2.40). The qualitative themes shed light on these numbers to reveal a pathology of governance failure. More specifically, there is a political capture of technical decisions and a culture of impunity. There is also a "black hole" of data that exists. Lastly, this culture of governance failure propels a high-cost reactive maintenance culture and prevents investment. The research demonstrates that the lack of data is not a minor technical problem. Rather, it is a manifestation of a governance system that actively blocks transparency, accountability, and evidence-based management. The study concluded that dual-track strategy governance and data need to be addressed for effective revitalisation. The public sector must primarily act as a strategic enabler and not a direct operator by promoting an independent rail regulator, data transparency on a radical scale, and public-private partnerships. Foundation governance reforms should be prioritized first, followed by selective investments and digitization initiatives in a phased v manner. The study contributes to theory by drawing support for institutional theory in a developing world SOE context and extends the resource-based view by framing reliable data as a strategic resource. In practical terms, it provides a diagnostically informed roadmap for essential reforms in the country's rail sector for policymakers and industry leaders.