Transport Minister Barbara Creecy has said government is putting about R8.9 billion into the Ore Line Restoration Programme, a plan to rebuild the 861 km railway that carries iron ore from Sishen in the Northern Cape to the Port of Saldanha in the Western Cape by 2030, according to BusinessTech. She made the announcement on Monday 12 October 2026 during a visit to the line’s annual maintenance shutdown, and the full figures are set out in a government statement published by SAnews.
What the programme covers
The programme is run by the Transnet Rail Infrastructure Manager (TRIM), the Transnet unit that manages and maintains the national rail network and gives train operators access to it. According to the government statement, its aims are to restore reliability, improve capacity and support economic growth.
In her remarks at Upington on 12 October, published by the government, Creecy said the line has operated as a heavy-haul railway for 50 years, moving iron ore, manganese and other commodities. BusinessTech reports that years of heavy use have left maintenance backlogs affecting tracks, signalling, locomotives and wagons, which has reduced export reliability.
The annual shutdown ran from 6 to 16 October. The work included replacing rails and sleepers, screening ballast, replacing and maintaining turnouts (the points that let trains switch tracks), accelerating track maintenance, rehabilitating formations (the ground the track sits on), installing culverts, and electrical and signalling maintenance.
Where the R8.9 billion goes
Government has allocated R3.4 billion through the Budget Facility for Infrastructure (BFI), a National Treasury mechanism for funding large public infrastructure projects, over the current and next financial years. This year TRIM will invest about R2.2 billion in restorative maintenance on the corridor, including R1.5 billion from the BFI allocation.
Rolling stock maintenance on the ore line totals R1.47 billion, made up of R752.3 million for wagons and R721.9 million for locomotives. Similar amounts are planned for the next financial year. The money supports the 15GO and 43DGO locomotive overhaul programmes, which are meant to address maintenance backlogs and improve fleet availability and reliability.
At the coast, the Transnet National Ports Authority is commissioning a Bulk Power Upgrade Project at Saldanha, with total capital investment of about R750 million. It increases the port’s power supply so that Transnet Port Terminals can operate its third tippler, the machine that tips ore out of wagons, and handle higher export volumes.
Jobs, private operators and safety
About 1,300 fixed-term contract opportunities were created for this October intervention, and more than 600 indirect opportunities are expected through related economic activity, according to the statement. Small, medium and micro enterprises can take part in civil works, track services, logistics, transport, plant and equipment support, material supply and accommodation. Larger contractors are encouraged to subcontract locally.
Creecy tied the maintenance spending to rail reform. Government’s policy is to open the freight rail network to private train operating companies while keeping the rail infrastructure state-owned. “We cannot invite greater volumes onto the railway without investing in the infrastructure that must carry those volumes,” she said. The minister argued that operators need reliable infrastructure before they invest in locomotives, wagons and operations.
The government’s wider target, set out in her remarks, is to raise the freight moved by rail to 250 million tonnes a year by 2029, a goal Eyewitness News also reported her linking to the corridor work.
She described the line as “an economic artery that supports exports, industrial growth and employment across our economy”. On safety, she said: “Safety is not separate from delivery. It is the foundation of delivery.”
What the miners say
Kumba Iron Ore chief executive Mpumi Zikalala told the Joburg Indaba conference, as reported by MiningMX, that rail performance has stabilised after years of deterioration. She described the gains as “stability with marginal gains” and said: “There’s still a lot that needs to be done.” Restoring the network, she said, requires “capital, it requires skills, and it requires speed.”
Zikalala said Kumba had to reconfigure its business for “a lower base” because logistics constraints stopped it planning production at earlier levels. Production is forecast at 31 to 33 million tons this year, partly because of work on the ultra-high dense medium separation project at Sishen, and is expected to rise to 35 to 37 million tons in 2027. Kumba is spending R11.2 billion on that project, which will allow lower-grade material previously treated as waste to be processed as ore.
Distance also counts against the producers. South Africa supplies less than 5% of global iron ore, and Kumba moves its ore more than 860 km from mine to port. “So we are further [away] than those we compete with,” Zikalala said. Kumba and the other members of the Ore Users Forum, which represents four major iron ore producers, work with Transnet on rail and port performance during the restoration programme.
The spending figures above are the government’s and Transnet’s own plans and commitments. None of the sources reviewed gives a year-by-year schedule for the full R8.9 billion, and the rolling stock figure differs slightly between Creecy’s spoken remarks (about R1.4 billion) and the official text (R1.47 billion), which is the figure used here.
