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Tuesday, August 18, 2009.

From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I'm Shannon O'Donnell.

Making headlines today:

South Africa's Transnet Freight Rail has increased its number of cargo trains from six a week to between 16 and 22 trains a week, since the inception of its national control centre about a year ago.

The NCC, in Parktown, Johannesburg, provides a centralised location for all TFR functions including macro resource and capacity planning, definition of an operational strategy, execution monitoring and management of deviation.

The NCC caters for four rail corridors, namely the Cape, Central, Natal and Eastern corridors.
Each of the corridors has a multidisciplinary team that monitors and controls the trains moving in a particular corridor. The teams are also equipped for rail engineering, infrastructure development and train planning.

Although TFR only manages operational plans for its own trains, it also manages the positions of passenger and other cargo trains.

President Jacob Zuma, along with several members of his new Cabinet, will undertake his first State visit to Angola later this week in an effort to consolidate strategic bilateral and economic relations between the two countries.

The Department of International Relations and Cooperation said that there was a growing sense that stronger relations between the two countries would be mutually beneficial not only at a political level, but also for the private sector.

The department noted that there was "massive interest" by South Africa's private sector to get involved in the reconstruction process of Angola, as it had tremendous resources.

Angola, on the other hand, viewed South Africa's human resources potential and its strong infrastructure as added benefits in the relationship.

Also making headlines:

India's Bharti Airtel receives bids from more than a dozen foreign banks to fund its proposed stake in South Africa's MTN.
Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan says that South Africa's recovery may lag behind other countries.
A McCarthy and Imperial joint venture will expand the range of Chinese vehicles in South Africa.
And, South Africa works on financial instruments to boost renewable projects.

That's a round up of news making headlines today. For more on these and other stories please visit engineeringnews.co.za.