Transnet ‘a model of SA-China teamwork’

Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown holds up Transnet as a success story in terms of SA-China co-operation.

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#Focac: Pretoria - The relationship between Transnet and China’s State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (Sasac) was held up as an example of a model partnership when Minister of Public Enterprises Lynne Brown and Sasac chairman Zhang Yi visited Transnet Engineering’s Koedoespoort plant in Pretoria on Thursday.

Brown and Zhang spoke glowingly about the partnership, describing it as win-win, and expressing hope that it would be deepened and expanded in years to come, perhaps even becoming a symbol of Chinese-South African co-operation.

The visiting party inspected new locomotives, some of which had been assembled locally and others assembled in China, as proof of successful localisation and skills transfer. Zhang said his organisation sought to help South Africa improve its own capability in rail as much as possible, even if that meant surpassing China’s own capability.

Brown, who said she was very happy with the performance of Transnet, noted that its impressive progress was at least partly thanks to the co-operative relationship with Sasac.

A visit to the school of engineering gave the delegation a glimpse of the next generation of engineers and artisans, including a surprising number of women. Moipone Nxele, a female engineer in charge of locomotive assembly, confirmed that empowerment of women was another box that Transnet could tick. On the line she works on, she said, 30 percent of the 227 employees were female.

ANA