The South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) says it is angered by the revelation that China South Rail (CSR) wants South Africa’s government to grant it an exemption from its local content obligations, worth R5.3-billion, as part of the conditions for it supplying new locomotives to State-owned transport utility Transnet.
South African media on Friday reported that the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) had received a request from CSR for exemptions on its local content commitments but that its request had been declined.
In a statement, Saftu said it welcomed the DTI’s decision to reject the request, but expressed concern about CSR’s ability to achieve a local content score of 60%, as required under the Transnet contract, which included strict local content and supplier development obligations, which were supposed to help create jobs and grow the local economy.
The first 166 of the 359 locomotives that have so far been delivered by CSR to Transnet, as part of the project, have a local content score of only 33%, according to figures supplied by the company itself, Saftu pointed out.