TRANSNET is bleeding senior executives as another CEO resigns.
Siza Mzimela, Transnet Freight Rail (TFR), resigned on Thursday, 5 October.
She described the situation at TRF as a “warzone”.
“It’s hard for me to believe that it was just three short years ago when I was received by not more than four people in the TFR office. Today, I'm happy that as I leave at the end of October 2023, I had the opportunity to personally meet and engage with so many of you, who comprise of 26 000 hardworking TRF employees,” she said in her resignation letter.
Last week, two executives - group CEO Portia Derby and group CFO Nonkululeko Dlamini - announced they would resign from the struggling state-owned company.
Mzimela claimed that TRF performed well under her leadership.
She was appointed by Derby in early 2020.
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Mzimela and Derby will stay in their roles until the end of October, while Dlamini’s exit was immediate.
She said that her stay was riddled with challenges beyond her powers.
Mzimela has been under pressure from the Transnet board to resign over the past four weeks because TFR performed poorly during her tenure.
“Despite the seemingly endless litany of legacy challenges, which include a lack of tools for peak performance, a lack of locomotives, crippling theft and vandalism, as well as the “potholes” in the infrastructure system that force slower movement of trains due to our company’s safety-first ethos, you, the people of TFR continued to push forward,” she said.
Mzimela said she hoped that things would return to normality and TRF would be fully equipped to play its role “to circulate the lifeblood” of the South African economy.
“I pray that the cry for support to unlock the artery to the heart of this business, locomotives, is finally heard and acted upon. This will result in the heightened delivery that our country, its people, and economy so desperately need to thrive,” said Mzimela.
