Eswatini Railways (ESR) CEO Elected new Southern Africa Railways Association (SARA) President

Mbabane: 19 June 2025, Mr Nixon Dlamini who is the current sitting Chief Executive Officer of Eswatini Railways has been elected the President of the SARA which is a position with a fixed term of 2 years. Mr Amon Sefawe who is currently the Director Finance at Botswana Railways was elected the Deputy President. Mr Dlamini has for the past 2 years served as the Deputy President to the outgoing President, the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa(PRASA) Group CEO, Mr Hisham Emeran. The elections took place today in a SARA Board Meeting taking place at the Hilton Garden Inn in Mbabane, Eswatini. Dlamini has been CEO of Eswatini railways since February 2020 to date. He previously worked for ESR as a Civil Engineer from 1997 to 2001 before moving into the private sector.

SARA is an association of business operators and players in Southern Africa, formed in 1996 in response to increasing road competition and lack of policy regionalisation of the railways. At its formation, SARA was to originally provide the SADC railways with a strong lobbying association to pursue advocacy for fair surface transport competition to be achieved through “leveling the playing ground between road and rail in terms of policy and regulations”

Challenges
• The new Executive highlighted the issue of mordenisation of the railways as one key challenge they are facing. This includes attracting younger skilled people to aspire to play a role in the industry.
• The issue of profiling the railways to all important stakeholders is another challenge, some stakeholders do not know how to take advantage of the services provided by the railways, this is a marketing function.
• Working closer with governments to get them to support investment in railway infrastructure is another deliverable despite the challenge of lack of resources.
• There are a couple of ongoing efforts to expand the railway connectivity in the SADC region and governments are implored to push their weight behind these projects.