South Africa to build its own trains, and townships are booming

Here’s what is happening and affecting South Africa today:

Local trains: Transnet’s long-standing impasse with the China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation (CRRC) has hindered its ability to obtain spare parts for Chinese locomotives, negatively impacting coal transport to global markets. However, Transnet Freight Rail CEO Russell Baatjies recently stated that introducing locally manufactured locomotives will help reduce reliance on CRRC. [News24]

Township boom: Vukile, a retail property owner, saw a 9.6% increase in trading density at its township shopping centres during the festive season. The REIT also reported a 5.9% growth in rural centres and a 4.6% increase in urban centres, reflecting strong holiday shopping demand across the country’s townships. [Business Day]

All eyes on the SARB: Economists are expecting the South African Reserve Bank to cut interest rates by 25 basis points when it concludes its monetary policy meeting this week, essentially bringing the repo rate down to 7.50% and the prime rate to 11%. [Mail & Guardian]

Detective crisis: In its latest annual report, the Independent Police Investigative Directorate highlighted that it has only 167 investigators spread across the country, and they have a backlog of over 15,000 cases. The limited capacity has also seen IPID’s investigators only able to attend 24% of crime scenes within the first 24 hours of a matter being reported. [EWN]

Markets: South Africa’s rand slipped on Monday ahead of a week packed with domestic and international data releases, with eyes set on interest rate decisions from the Federal Reserve and the South African Reserve Bank (SARB). On Tuesday (28 January), the rand was trading at R18.85/USD, R23.46/GBP and R19.67/EUR. Oil is trading under $77.26 a barrel.