LETTER: Over to you, BBC

It would be interesting to know what the Black Business Council (BBC) means by “transformation” in the rail sector (“Transnet spare parts deal with Chinese rail manufacturer falters”, January 12).

If it means a few more black managers driving fancy cars, maybe its support for Transnet CEO Portia Derby makes sense. If it means helping the poorest of the poor move around or get their goods to market, the railway in SA has done, and continues to do, the majority of South Africans more harm than good.

In a process that admittedly started before the ANC took over but that the present government has done nothing to reverse, thousands of kilometres of branch lines have been closed, forcing many thousands of railway workers living in small towns all over the country into unemployment.

The more recent collapse of passenger rail has forced many people who previously travelled by rail at heavily subsidised fares to switch to unsubsidised minibus taxis. A big chunk of the taxi fare goes into imported fuel, spares and into the pockets of foreign-owned motor and oil companies. My guesstimate is that as much as R100bn is involved here.

In the same issue of Business Day columnist Jonny Steinberg pointed out that the taxi industry could have become a corporate colossus (“Liberated from the law, hitmen put SA leaders in their crosshairs”, January 13).

No white business group has ever bothered to ask why the railway closed down, what happens to taxi fares and why the taxi industry remains in the doldrums.  Over to you, BBC.

Vaughan Mostert

North Riding

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