By Lesedi Sibiya-Diplomatic Insider 

CEO of Transnet, Michelle Phillips, addressed the Joburg Indaba yesterday on expressing the optimism for the company in regards to the locomotives which have been of no use for years will finally be returned to service amid tensions between Transnet and China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation (CRRC). 

The state-owned company had secured a court order to attach the components after they had been idly held in warehouses. CRRC had been withholding spare parts from Transnet in two warehouses in Pretoria which they had also attempted to sell and relocate.

 She expressed to the Joburg conference that a full scale inventory is currently in effect, as the CRRC had not upheld the terms of the contract that was shared between the two companies, a contract which has also been addressed in commission of inquiry into state capture and their dealings were declared irregular and illegal.

 Certain other components were needed for the maintenance of the locomotives which were integrated into the company’s fleet.

 “So, the hope is that once we have completed the inventory process we would then be able to use some of the parts to get some of these long standing locomotives back onto the network” said Phillips at the Joburg Indaba. 

Transnet relegated to assigning BT Alstom which will be delivering locomotives of their own to Transnet and they will serve as an interim step in as original-equipment manufacturers (OEM). 

“We have, in fact, put some of these locomotives into the network already,” said Phillips.

 “The challenge has been that, as we are putting locomotives in, some of them are coming out, particularly the chinese ones and the hope is that these parts we’ve not attached can be used to get even more locomotives into the system” added Phillips