There is light at the end of the tunnel for South Africa’s railway network, according to Colossal Concrete Products, Southern Africa’s largest producer of precast concrete railway sleepers.
Chief Executive Officer, Gwen Mahuma-Madida and Chief Operating Officer, Mmapitso Kiewiet -who both personify the pivotal role women play in the rail and infrastructure sectors – believe that the thousands of kilometres of track criss-crossing South Africa will over time be restored, contributing towards economic recovery and forging critical linkages across the SADC region and into Africa.
A Colossal vision for rail
Mahuma-Madida explains that she, together with fellow investors, chose the name ‘Colossal’ because they had a colossal or massive vision of developing infrastructure products and services across the continent.
In 2021, Colossal Concrete Products – a Level 1 B-BBEE venture – purchased a precast concrete products manufacturing facility in Brakpan and a mothballed operation at De Aar in the Northern Cape from the company formerly known as Aveng Infraset.
The De Aar facility reopened in October last year, following the conclusion of a 1-year contract with Transnet Freight Rail (TFR) to supply precast concrete railway sleepers for upgrading of existing rail infrastructure. This has been extended by six months to December 2024.
Both Mahuma-Madida and Kiewiet believe that rail will rise above challenges such as poor maintenance, vandalism, theft and lack of investment: “With new leadership, there is a fresh new and invigorated approach and mind set. This will not only have a major impact on the rail network and other infrastructure of the country, but also on our own workforce. We can produce a million sleepers a year – and so currently, are not even scratching the surface of our full capacity,” Mahuma-Madida points out.
“Having said this, we believe that we will benefit from the escalation in the delivery of infrastructure upgrades – as well as the resumption of maintenance of our rail infrastructure. However, we can also increase demand for our products through working closely with the private sector in construction, mining, engineering and renewable energy. This applies both in South Africa and throughout Sub-Saharan Africa – where we are actively pursuing distribution agreements for our products,” she comments.
Pan-African infrastructure expansion
Colossal’s opportunities extend beyond their contract with Transnet Freight Rail. The company also supplies PRASA via third-party contractors; as well as private sector rail projects at sites such as a manganese ore mine in the Northern Cape.
Colossal also recently supplied rail sleepers and poles for a 109-kilometre railway upgrade project in Namibia and distributes poles in Botswana. In further expansion, the company’s recent distribution agreement and collaboration with Eswatini precast concrete manufacturer and distributor NPC is expected to open up a new sub-Saharan African market – and an export springboard for precast concrete products via the port of Maputo in neighbouring Mozambique.
Mahuma-Madida says that Colossal has a variety of products – including concrete poles, masts, culverts and pipes – which play a role in the whole infrastructure value chain.
“We are also trying to grow into larger markets such as telecommunications, energy and construction. One of our most significant advantages is the flexibility to set a unique and sustainable system of modular, portable ‘project factories’ which cater for specific projects and can be dismantled post-completion.
Making a difference
Colossal believes its contribution to developing infrastructure goes beyond the actual physical product: “We help to change people’s lives and make a sustainable difference. For example, there is a whole economy around a rail network: it not only boosts a country’s gross domestic product (GDP) – but promotes ease of movement, facilitating transport of both people and goods. This means less heavy commercial transport vehicles on the road – and therefore less damage to the road infrastructure,” explains Kiewiet.
Making a difference in peoples’ lives started close to home for Colossal: not only were jobs retained, but employment in the De Aar and Brakpan facilities has collectively increased to just under 200.
“For us, our investment in people encompasses the local community around our Brakpan and De Aar facilities, with some 10 people benefitting from each person employed. As this business is very seasonal and depends on key contracts and orders, we have a base of permanent employees and then we hire limited duration contractors (LDCs). In Brakpan, we are extremely proud to recently have made some of these LDCs permanent – and are hoping to employ even more people. In De Aar, we started with just a handful of people whom we re-employed in their former positions – and we have then scaled it up as we opened more production lines,” explains Kiewiet.
Women ‘steaming ahead’
Mahuma-Madida’s entrepreneurial initiatives have been focused on rail since 2012: “This is an industry about which I am very passionate. Together with fellow investors, I am still looking for other opportunities, products and services which we as Colossal Concrete Products can supply into numerous different infrastructure-related sectors: from renewable energy, to water, roads and the mining and construction sectors – and of course, rail.”
Colossal is also focused on promoting the role of women in the sector: “In administration, we are highly weighted towards women. In the factory, because the work requires heavy lifting, there are more men. However, we do have women who work in our prepping and stacking departments,” Kiewiet adds.
Mahuma-Madida adds that there are significant opportunities in quality and safety. From the procurement of raw materials to dispatch, and from testing to research and development, there are areas where women can excel.
A concrete foundation for the future
In addition to creating jobs, Colossal has also made strides in improving quality with a product reject rate far below the industry average of 0.5%: “We are proud to say that the average reject rate at our culvert plant is 0%. Furthermore – despite the volumes we produce at our longline plant – our reject rate average there is 0.1%, which is a true testament to our quality and manufacturing processes,” Kiewiet enthuses.
“Over the past three years, we have turned this business around, not only securing the TFR contract but securing our leading position as the largest supplier of railway sleepers in Southern Africa; as well as being a major supplier of other precast concrete products required for infrastructure development not only locally but across the continent.
As such, Colossal has built up a great reputation as a trusted manufacturer of quality, innovative precast concrete products – as well as a company which takes care of its staff, customers and suppliers. We have substantial capacity to produce quality precast concrete infrastructure products across Sub-Saharan Africa, and we are ‘on track’ to do just that,” Mahuma-Madida concludes.
Article by: Anita Anyango (Mining Business Africa)
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