JOHANNESBURG – Former Transnet engineer Francis Callard said that the new procurement of locomotives was torpedoed by executives who accelerated the delivery process for no reason.
Callard blamed former Transnet chief financial officer Anoj Singh, who requested that the delivery of the locomotives be reduced from seven years to four years.
Testifying at the Zondo commission of inquiry on Thursday, Callard said this resulted in the price of the 1,064 trains increasing from R38 billion to almost R55 billion.
Callard said that the request to accelerate delivery did not make operational or commercial sense.
“The business case was that locomotive performance would improve with new, more reliable and more powerful locomotives. That was the premise. It is my understanding that the locomotive performance now, as measured in gross tonne kilometres, is now worse than when the acquisition started.”
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