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INFRASTRUCTURE
: ROADS, PORTS, AIRPORTS, RAILWAYS, POWER
AND TELECOM
ROAD
ROAD
SYSTEM
| Approximate
length |
58,000
km |
| Percentage
% of Total Road network |
31% |
RAIL
SYSTEM
Approximate
length of track 34,000 km. It falls under the control of spoornet
and the South Africa Raib Committe Corporation (SARCC). Spoornet
provides rail transport mainly for goods and containers, but also
Transport for passengers travelling long distances between major
cities. The SARCC is responsible for providing commuter services
in six major urban centres in the country.
PORTS
South
Africa has Seven Commercial Ports. Cape Town, Durban, East London,Port
Elizabeth,Richards Bay the biggest port in South Africa & world's
largest bulk coal terminal, Mossel Bay, Saldanha Bay.
Total
tonnage through the ports is approx. 115 million ton per annum.
Richards Bay has an ultra modern coal handling terminal exporting
54 million tons of coal and minerals annually. Ports are being improved
to provide first class facilities and services at reasonable tariff.
AIRPORTS
Johannesburgh
airport,Cape Town,Durban-Louis Botha are major bulk cargo ports.
Most of the world's best known airlines fly into Johannesburg. South
African Airlines (SAA) offers nearly 600 national flights per week
linking nine cities and 69 flights to 12 destinations in Africa
and Indian Ocean islands. SAA also has nine flights a day to 22
cities in Europe, America and the East. These include daily flights
to London, four weekly flights to New York and one to Miami, Florida;
and regular services to Frankfurt, Paris, Amsterdam, Sydney, Perth,
Rio de Janeiro, Taipei, Hong Kong, Singapore, Dubai and Tel Aviv.
SAA
has formed commercial agreements with other international airlines
to offer direct access to many other destinations across the globe.
The airline has offices in more than 50 cities in 30 countries,
which also serve as information centres on tourist amenities and
business opportunities in South Africa.
Air
transport is nearly 10,000 million passenger kilometer a year.
POWER
Generating
capacity 37600 MW
Output (million)
192.015 kwh.
Electricity
accounts for 25.1% of total net energy consumption in South Africa.
Eskom supplies 95.7% at an average selling price of 10.32 c/kWh.
The balance is generated by the Transkei Electricity Supply Corporation,
mines, industries and a few municipalities which operates their
own power stations.
The
average growth rate in Eskom's electricity sales has been 2.2% per
annum over the past five years. Industry is the biggest electricity
consumer in South Africa, followed by mining.
Eskom
supplies electricity direct to more than a million customers. About,
43% of its electricity is sold in bulk to municipalities who re-sell
it to end-users (about 2.5 million), 27% to industry and 43% to
mines.
According
to Eskom, only about 44% of South Africans have electricity in their
homes.
Coal
remains the primary source of electricity generation for Eskom.
In 1998, some 92.09% of its electricity was supplied by coal-fired
stations.
Eskom
has 19 power stations and distributes its electricity through a
national power system comprising more than 239,000 km of power lines,
which include all its overhead lines, and some 6,000 km of cables.
Synthetic
Fuels: Manufacture of fuels and chemicals from coal is the main
activity of Sasol, a world leader in conversion of coal to oil and
gas. It operates the only economically viable oil-from-coal plants
in the world.
The
Atomic Energy Commission operates the facilities that produce nuclear
fuel- the country has one nuclear power station - plus nuclear and
industrial products, services and technology. About 7.80% of total
was supplied by nuclear fules.
TELECOMMUNICATION
Telephones
Mainline connections
: approx. 5.075 million
Mobile Telephones : over
2,000,000
South
Africa is the telecommunications leader on the African continent
with approx 5.3 million installed telephones and 3.6 million installed
exchange lines. This represents 39 per cent of the total lines installed
in Africa with nearly 90 lines for every 1,000 inhabitants. In addition,
the cellular telephone industry has taken South Africa by storm.
The two cellular networks, Vodacom and MTN, are committed to community
projects. Vodacom is to introduce 22,000 mobile telephones to disadvantaged
areas over the next five years, while MTN has undertaken to instal
7500 pay phones across the country over the same period.
South
Africa has a large transmission infrastructure, necessitated by
the country's geographical area of 1.2 million square kilometres
covering approx 115 million circuit kilometres. The transmission
network constitutes the backbone of telecommunications services,
84% of the network is already digital. There are 40 000 2Mbits circuits
in service. Digital microwave and optical fibre serve as main transmission
media for the inter-primary network interconnecting all the major
centres.
WATER
The
rivers, which are the main water sources in South Africa, are fed
by less than 470 mm of rain a year, compared with a world average
of 857 mm. Sixty-five per cent of the country gets less rain than
the amount usually regarded as the minimum required for successful
dry-land farming and 21 per cent less than 200 mm per year. The
resultant amount of water in all the rivers is about 53,500 million
kilolitres a year, including that from Lesotho. In total, this forms
not even one-eighth of the water in the Mississippi River in the
United States.
Only
about 33 000 million kilolitres of the annual run-off can be economically
exploited, because of fluctuating rainfall and the high annual evaporation
rates over most of the country.
This
is further reduced by land use practices such as commercial afforestation,
the construction of dams and artificially inflated evaporation losses
from storage dams around the country.
About
52% of water available in the country is used for agricultural irrigation
and stock watering, 12 per cent for municipal and domestic purposes,
7.6 per cent by industry, 2.7 per cent by mining and 2.3 percnet
for power generating.
TRANSNET
For
operating as a state-owned and state-controlled corporation, the
South African Transport Services (SATS) became a fully commercial
organisation in April 1990. As a public company with a board of
directors drawn from both the public and private sectors, it now
operates as a profit oriented, tax-paying and privately audited
organisation.
WITHIN
TRANSNET,THE OPERATING DIVISIONS HAVE BEEN STREAMLINED INTO FIVE
BUISNESS CONCERNS:
SPOORNET
the biggest of Transnet's business concerns, which runs the rail
network, including mainline passenger traffic and freight transport,
has a new structure designed for profit and improved client service.
Rail commuter services have been kept under state control, placing
Spoornet in a position to run the rest of the rail network according
to sound business principles.
AUTONET
offers a reliable and competitive road transport system. It has
been a separate commercial undertaking since April 1988 operating
on a country wide basis and competing in the passenger and freight
transport markets.
PORTNET
manages South Africa's eight commercial harbours. As harbour authority,
it endeavours to promote national and international trade by providing
the necessary port infrastructure. It also offers marine and cargo-related
services and the creation of opportunities for waterfront development.
SOUTH
AFRICAN AIRWAYS (SAA) is a member of
the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and operates
a comprehensive network of services. Domestically, SAA provides
more than 650 flights per week linking all major areas. SAA currently
flies to 11 destinations in Africa and neighbouring countries with
a frequency of 37 flights per week.
South
African Airways operates services to ten cities within Europe, daily
services to the UK and a weekly flight to Manchester, as well as
regular services to Taipei, Hong Kong and Singapore in the Far East
and Rio de Jeneiro in South America.
SAA
has a code share agreement with Varig Brazilian Airlines to Bangkok,
Austrian Airlines to Vienna and Air Afrique to Abidjan.
SAA
also operates a weekly flight to Larnaca, Cyprus, and a weekly flight
to Miami, Florida was introduced in addition to the four existing
weekly flights to New York.
SAA
has agreements with most of the world's big airlines to provide
direct flights between Johannesburg and other major cities throughout
the world. SAA also reintroduced flights to Sydney and Perth (Australia).
SAA
offices are to be found in over 50 cities in some 30 countries which,
in addition to their primary function as airline offices, also serve
as information centres on tourist amenities and business opportunities
in South Africa.
PETRONET
operates, manages and maintains a network of more than 3 100 km
of under ground petroleum pipelines with a staff complement of approximately
241 people. The company has branched out recently to include a tank
farm among its assets managed, which allows Petronet to offer a
one-stop service for industry, fulfilling functions such as stock
management, loading of roadand rail vehicles and the injection of
additives. Future expansionwill come from maximising the current
supply chain and offering the customer a full range of services.
Each
business functions independently under the guidance of the mother
company - Transnet. It has business links with most countries in
southern Africa, as far north as Zambia and Zaire, this involves
operating assistance as well as providing of the spares training
and consultancy advice.
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