The Netherlands-South African Railway Company (Nederlandsche-Zuid-Afrikaansche Spoorwegmaatschappij) or NZASM was established in August 1884 in the Transvaal, and funded by Dutch, German and Transvaal capitalists.[1] The license was conditional on the route from Delagoa Bay to Pretoria being complete before the end of 1894. The line opened on 2 November 1894. The line was created in an attempt to break the dependence of the South African Republic on the British colonies to the south. By building a railway eastwards into Portuguese Mozambique the settlers would have a trade route that did not run through British territory.
After the Second Boer War it was taken over by Central South African Railways.