Jo’burg couple lays the tracks for SA youth to benefit from locomotive boom

28th May 2020

By: Creamer Media Reporter

     

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As South African transport authorities set their sights on restoring and growing the country’s rail networks, one intrepid couple has positioned themselves to help young graduates benefit from the boom, reports Rebekah Funk.

As South Africa’s ports and rail company, Transnet, lays the tracks for South Africa to be one of the largest railway networks in the world, industry experts predict the shift from trucks to train will promote environmental sustainability and economic growth.

Using freight trains rather than trucks could prevent almost 3,000 kilotons of carbon dioxide emissions each year — the equivalent of getting more than half a million cars off the road, according to the Department of Environmental Affairs.

The financial implications are also promising, according to a Ministry report: “By increasing investment in transport infrastructure and the sectors serving it, the spin-off for the economy as a whole, including jobs, is substantial.”

This railway boom is good news for local entrepreneurs in Gauteng, who are hoping to assist with the transition to greener transport and create jobs for unemployed graduates in the process.

Entrepreneurs like Mlindi and Malebo Kgamedi, owners of Redshank Holdings, a manufacturing business the husband-and-wife team founded in 2015 under unlikely circumstances.

Their original plan, says Mlindi, was to provide technical learnerships for companies that provided services for the rail and locomotive sector; it would be purely educational.

“But we subsequently got a request from one of our clients for metal finishing services and we realised it was a niche market we should pursue,” Mlindi says with a laugh.

The pair hasn’t looked back since, and are the only Level One B-BBEE and female co-owned entity providing metal finishing in the province’s West Rand district.

Curiosity leads to company

Mlindi grew up in a middle class family from Soweto. He had a background in electrical engineering and an insatiable curiosity to know how things work — he’d take electronics apart and try to put them back together on a whim. Malebo, meanwhile, also excelled at the technical and studied law as a future asset for the business.

“We ended up working from home in our garage until we were able to open a small metal finishing plant,” Mlindi explains. “At first, I had to scratch around for funds — my dad was good enough to give us a loan of about R40,000, which we paid back in our first six months.”

From these humble beginnings, the Kgamedis grew the business into a profitable enterprise with four full-time employees and a bustling factory in Honeydew.

In 2018, Redshank Holdings achieved ISO9001:2015 certification along with a reputation for quality and quick turnaround times. Recently, they completed the two-year SAB Foundation Tholoana Programme – a business support programme run by business incubator Fetola – to assist them to grow the business sustainably.

Jobs for the future

With the recent industry boom, the couple’s now discussing a return to its original plan of technical learnerships.

Rather than seeking careers and degrees in industries that are already saturated, Mlindi says the rail and locomotive industry is ripe for young graduates.

Metal finishing skills (taking raw copper parts and powder coating, anodising, or electroplating them with zinc, silver or tin to promote conductivity and durability) are “rare and unpopular” among young people — yet sought-after by the industry and relatively easy to learn, he adds.

“The rail and locomotive industry is one that young people should take advantage of in this current scourge of unemployment. I see it existing for many years to come,” Mlindi predicts.

“One of the biggest challenges we have here in South Africa is transporting goods from the ports inland to the rest of the country. We are still reliant on roads and trucking, which isn’t efficient. If we got our locomotives in good order, we could use them as a cost-effective way to transport goods,” he adds.

There’s no doubt it’s a sector primed for growth. In October 2019, Transnet piloted a world-record-breaking train with 375 wagons. It stretched 4km and travelled from Northern Cape to the west coast port of Saldanha carrying 23,625 metric tonnes of manganese ore (a material used in steelmaking) over 861km.

And that’s just the beginning. Transnet’s Market Development Strategy overview states rail volumes are projected to increase from approximately 200 million tonnes to 350 million tonnes by the end of 2019. The increased tonnage by rail will improve the country’s overall efficiency, explains the company’s senior media relations manager, Mike Asefovitz.

“Our aim is to lower the cost of doing business in South Africa. As we increase our efficiency and become a more reliable transporter, that will transpose into the rest of the economy,” Asefovitz says.

South Africa is on track to becoming the fifth-largest railway in the world, he adds.

The Kgamedis, meanwhile, are poised to help the country achieve this goal. 

Edited by Creamer Media Reporter

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