Gordhan heads to China to discuss locomotives
Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan will head to China in April to discuss the delivery of locomotives and spare parts by Chinese rail equipment manufacturer CRRC E-Loco to Transnet.
This follows a meeting earlier this year with President Cyril Ramaphosa.
During the meeting the declining performance of the freight rail division was raised sharply as a key challenge, and a constraint to the performance of the economy.
The CRRC locomotives directly impact the performance of three key rail corridors in the North, North-East and Cape corridors.
The corridors account for approximately 50% of Transnet Freight Rail’s revenue, and support three mining sector segments: export coal, chrome and manganese.
In a statement on Thursday Transnet stated that the key requirement was to normalize key relationships with regulatory authorities.
“A key requirement for CRRC to continue doing business in South Africa, is the normalization of its relationship with key regulatory authorities – the South African Reserve Bank and the South African Revenue Service. Up to now, the Chinese OEM has declined to do so.
“Minister Gordhan remains hopeful that talks with his Chinese counterparts will yield positive results, in the interest of both SOCs and relations between the two countries.”
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