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The delivery of the 100th salt wagon produced at Transnet Freight Engineering’s Uitenhage plant for Botswana Rail places the Eastern Cape at the centre of Transnet’s plans to accelerate its sales of heavy equipment to the rest of Africa, Public Enterprises Minister Malusi Gigaba said on Tuesday morning.
The delivery is part of an initial order for 260 wagons that will ferry chemical grain salt from Botswana to Sasol’s factories in South Africa.
In total, Botswana Rail has ordered 560 wagons in a deal worth R420 million.
Speaking at an event to mark the hand-over of the first batch of wagons at Transnet Freight Rail in Uitenhage, Gigaba said the wagons had been designed, engineered and produced at the Uitenhage plant, adding that the partnership between Transnet and Botswana Rail signalled the beginning of the new approach to intra-regional cooperation to drive Africa’s economy.
"We will exploit Transnet Rail Engineering’s significant capacity and competence with regard to heavy engineering, especially in rail and port equipment manufacturing, to drive Africa’s industrialisation and therefore economic growth."
Gigaba said "encouragingly, Transnet Freight Rail had been awarded the contract through an open tender, confirming that the Uitenhage plant has the capacity and ability to compete with the best rolling stock manufacturers around the world."
He add that in line with Transnet’s commitment to the development of local suppliers and supporting industries, and the government’s economic and developmental objectives, the company, through its Competitive Supplier Development Programme sources most raw materials and components to manufacture the wagons locally.
If not, these are built in-house.
Speaking at the same function, Eastern Cape Economic Development, Environmental Affairs and Tourism MEC Mcebisi Jonas said it was fitting that the handover was taking place in Uitenhage in Nelson Mandela Bay "because the region was being positioned as the African Transhipment Hub that would allow landlocked countries such as Botswana to benefit."
Secondly, he said, the region was being positioned as a capital goods hub for South Africa’s and Africa’s infrastructure building programme.
Thirdly, he said, Uitenhage has lost the capacity it had as a major manufacturing hub over the past 10 years and this was now starting to be recaptured.
(Source: Metro Minute - to subscribe mail metminutes@iafrica.com)
