Southern Africa Railway Association announces new leaders, future plans

The Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) group CEO Hishaam Emeran has been voted in as the new president of the Southern Africa Railway Association (SARA). The CEO of Eswatini Railways, Nixon Dlamini, is the vice-president. 

SARA on Thursday briefed the media on future plans for the railway sector in the Southern African region.

“I am certainly humbled by this opportunity to be the president of this very important association,” said Emeran.

He said that during a meeting with other SARA board leaders, including Transnet Freight Rail (TFR) CEO Russell Baatjies, Railway Safety Regulator of South Africa acting CEO Mmuso Selaledi and the executive director of SARA, Babe Botana, they discussed a strategic plan for SARA which is in the process of developing an implementation plan to address the improvements from a railway freight and passenger perspective in the region.

“We all are very aware of the importance of railways to the region; we had an important discussion about being more proactive and ensuring that there are some tangible outcomes in terms of achieving these goals.

“We are also tracking and having oversight on the current volumes that we see being transported in the various regions. The implementation plan that the board will have oversight on will address the important challenges,” said Emeran.

A key moment for Prasa was the capability to manufacture trains in South Africa and the African Union deciding that it will become the rail manufacturing hub in which Prasa and Transnet will play critical roles.

The old yellow trains are being overhauled as a manufacturing factory in Nigel, Gauteng, is rolling out modern trains.

Emeran said that they hope they can export to Africa and the world.

“Prasa is going through an exciting modernisation phase including modern signalling systems, telecommunication systems which we are sharing and collaborating along with our colleagues [present with us,]” said Emeran.

He stated during his 10-year presidency he will make an effort to understand the railway systems operations and challenges in various member states which will require him to engage and visit leaders and look at areas of co-operation and agreement.