[Here is a quick recap on rail in Southern Africa. We had railways… and they worked fine… During the Rhodesian war, the Chinese came and tried to build two railway lies – one to the east and one to the west, from Zambia. These railway lines were intended to get the blacks away from being dependant on whites!?!? Hmmm… Why does that sound familiar? Anyway… the Chinese built the railway lines and they “sort of” worked for some years before falling into disrepair… and that’s pretty much where it stayed ever since!!! Another post-colonial failure…

Actually… if you have brains… Africa has incredible possibilities. One could link the Great Lakes together, join them with massive navigable rivers… and just have a great time developing Africa into a wonderful Garden of Eden. But that won’t happen while the blacks run the show. Jan]

An integrated African rail network interconnected with the continent’s ports, roads and waterways is essential for Africa’s development, South African Transport Minister Jeff Radebe said on Tuesday.

He was speaking in Midrand at the start of the seventh annual conference on African rail transport.

“The challenge is clearly how to link these river-based transport modes efficiently to road and rail systems,” Radebe said.

The physical integration of the continent through infrastructure development was essential, and should be backed up by Nepad’s goal of boosting regional trade by the removal of barriers.

“Central to this is the need to reduce costs both of doing business and to the consumer,” Radebe said.

The building of economies was dependent on transport routes, he said. – Sapa

This article was originally published on page 2 of Cape Argus on June 23, 2004

Source: Independent Online (IOL)
URL: http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click…/p>