…TransNamib juggles lockdown decline in transport demand
Andrew Kathindi
The decision by the government to halt construction activity in the country as part of the lockdown regulations could come back to haunt it. It has emerged that the government may be obliged to pay millions more to complete the various infrastructure projects.
The current lockdown prohibits a gathering of more than 10 people. Non-essential workers must stay at home. This has halted construction projects, including national road works countrywide.
“With these works halted across the country, such as the Okahandja highway and Hosea Kutako upgrades and social infrastructure development at some hospitals, the ministry is still assessing the complete fiscal impact of the coronavirus,” said Works and Transport Deputy Executive Director Jonas Sheelongo.
He revealed that the end of the lockdown will not soften the measures instituted by his ministry to restrict the spread of the virus. Therefore, construction activity will remain suspended until further notice.
“Even when lockdown is lifted, we would still be in a state of emergency. The measures will still apply. We are still trying to consolidate the cost of impact in all the sectors within transport and logistics and how that affects the economic stream,” Sheelongo said.
The statements by the works ministry official come as the Construction Industries Federation has warned that its members may not survive the lock-down period. There is zero income, with mass retrenchments and company bankruptcies on the cards.
Meanwhile, TransNamib CEO Johny Smith has said his company’s freight business, which contributes the bulk of its revenues, has recorded a 60 percent decline in business. This is due to the outbreak of COVID-19 worldwide.
“For the past few weeks, TransNamib’s business has gone down by 60 percent owing to certain commodities not moving. The airlines are not flying. With people on lockdown, the volume of fuel we’re transporting has gone down significantly. This also includes transport demand for some beverages that have been banned,” Smith said.
“Although 60 percent of our business has gone down due to the pandemic, as TransNamib we move a lot of freight at one time. This does not need a lot of staff to be on sight together. It has meant that staff of less than ten can do the necessary work.”
Smith said that the passenger train service will not reopen immediately once the COVID-19 lockdown lifts.
“For the passenger services, we are busy revising that process at the moment. We have had some discussions but we haven’t made a decision as to when we will run the passenger services again. We will not run it when the lockdown ends and have not determined when we will start running it again. We will only do so once we have concluded what measures need to be put in place for social distancing,” he said..
