Southern African Railways Association (SARA) - Papers and Publications. http://www.sararail.org/

1. SOUTHERN AFRICAN RAILWAYS
ASSOCIATION 10 YEAR JOURNEY

2. Formation of SARA
 SARA was formed in 1996 as an offshoot of two
organisations, the Southern African Development
Coordinating Conference (SADCC) Railways Chief Executives
Conference (SRCEC) & the Southern African Railways Chief
Executives Conference after realising the;
 continued decline in railway market share and
 failure by governments to continue subsidizing railways
 increase in road haulage
 need to re-design railway services to fulfil;
 Customer demands
 Competitive cost
 Service predictability & safety
 Seamless one stop service
 Promoting sharing of resources

3. Formation of SARA cont’d
 Need for a lobby group as identified by the CIDA funded
study of 1994/95 with the following major areas of
advocacy;
 Fair surface transport competition
 Infrastructure funding
 Overloading controls
 Improving governments’ awareness of the importance of rail
as a mode of transport
 Article 13.1 of the SADC Protocol on Transport,
Communications and Meteorology recognises SARA and
other regional organisations.

4. Founding members of SARA
 The following are the founding members of SARA;
 Botswana Railways (BR)
 Companhia do Caminho de Ferro de Benguela (CFB)
 Portos E Caminhos de Ferro de Mozambique EP (CFM)
 Malawi Railways (1994) Ltd
 National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ)
 Spoornet (SPN)
 Swaziland Railway (SR)
 Tanzania Zambia Railway Authority (TAZARA)
 TransNamib
 Zambia Railways Limited (ZRL)

5. Secretariat
 The SARA Secretariat was formed in 1998 with the main
function of coordinating the activities of the Association.
 The Secretariat office is based in Harare, Zimbabwe.
 Engineer Remigious Makumbe (now with SADC Secretariat)
was the first Secretary General (Executive Director) of
SARA.
 The current Executive Director is Mr. Bernard Dzawanda.
 The Secretariat is financed by annual subscriptions from
members.

6. SARA Presidents
 The SARA Board’s rotating presidency has been held as
follows;
 Mr. A.S. Le Roux – Spoornet (1996/97)
 Mr. A. Ramji – Botswana Railways (1997/98)
 Mr. A.Mabena- National Railways of Zimbabwe (1998/99)
 Mr. B.Crawford – Zambia Railways Limited (1999/2000)
 Mr. G.Mahlalela – Swaziland Railway (2000/01 & 2001/2)
 Mr. E.Dvir – Beitbridge Bulawayo Railways (2002/03)
 Eng. R.Fonseca – CFM (2003/04)
 Mr. J.Shaetonhodi – TransNamib (2004/05 & 2005/06)
 Mr. B.Botana – Railway Systems of Zambia (2006/07)
 Dr G.Mahlalela – Swaziland Railway (2007/08)

7. Key stakeholders
 SARA’s key stakeholders are;
 Customers
 Governments
 Collaborating partners/donors
 Employees
 Suppliers
 Community

8. SARA’s achievements
 Lobbying & advocacy
 Notable success in convincing governments on the importance of railways.
 Positive outcomes recorded on fuel levies.
 Levelling of playing field remains a major challenge.
 Operations improvement
 Progress made on sharing of resources and through working leading to
improved transit times.
 Joint train planning
 Creation of Corridor Management Groups
 Customer base/business volume
 Business volume has not significantly improved since the formation of SARA
but the railways have managed to retain some major customers

9. SARA’s achievements cont’d
 Technical improvements
 Maintenance standards on wagons improved to allow them to cover
1000km before examination.
 Ability by members to maintain each other’s equipment hence
facilitating smooth interchange.
 Training
 Joint training of staff in areas of operations, marketing, safety and
technical services.
 Projects
 Rolling Stock Information System (RSIS).
 Austrian Development Agency funded track maintenance project.

10. SARA achievements cont’d
 Membership base
 New member railways have joined SARA over the years as follows;
 SNCC (year)
 Tanzania Railway Corporation (year)
 Beitbridge Bulawayo Railways (year)
 Railway Systems of Zambia (year)
 CCFB (year)
 Angola x 2 (year)
 Other new associate members include Imperial Fleet Services,
Manica Africa, Railway Safety Regulator of South Africa.

11. Challenges
 The following challenges have been
confronting SARA over the years;
 Lack of funding for rail infrastructure
 Equipment availability & standardisation
 Skills drain
 Internal versus regional procedures

12. SARA today
 The Association now boasts of 21 members
of which 13 are full members and 8 are
associates.
 New membership thrust to admit
customers, suppliers and other interest
groups adopted in 2004.
 New membership composition provides the
much needed balance for exchange of
information and ideas that enhance service
provision.

13. SARA today cont’d
 Mission
 To facilitate the creation of an environment
whereby the railway industry is a top performer
and make rail transport the mode of choice.
 Vision
 To be the leader in the promotion of trade,
movement of goods and passengers, and
economic growth in the SADC region and Africa
as a whole.

14. SARA today cont’d
 Objectives
 To promote the railway industry in the SADC region.
 Advocate for fair and sustainable competition among all
surface transport providers.
 Promote regional and continental rail network connectivity.
 Exploit interconnectivity and achieve cross border operability.
 Promote alliances for the exchange of technical information,
strategies, skills development and training
 Develop, enhance and harmonise policies, governance and
business processes.
 Promote alliances with other modes of transport where
opportunities exist in order to achieve synergy and provide
total logistics solutions.

15. Addressing challenges & way forward
 Thrust of strategy and vision
 The new SARA strategy developed in 2004 aims to
elevate the association’s performance by focusing on;
 Membership drive
 Capacity building in railways
 Projects funding
 Operations improvement
 Standardisation of operating resources and procedures
 Customer service and performance improvement.

16. Areas requiring assistance from
governments & collaborating partners
 Financing of railway infrastructure
 Levelling of the playing field between road and
rail.
 Duty exemptions on imported recapitalisation
equipment and spares.
 Exemption from fuel levies.
 Public Private Partnerships (PPPs)
 Enforcement of overloading controls on roads
 Information technology and capacity building