October 28, 2024.

For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, this is Polity’s Daily Podcast

Making headlines:

Ramaphosa wants 250Mt of freight moved by rail by 2029

Morgan Stanley sees fiscal gains easing South Africa junk rating

And, Around 40 soldiers killed in attack on Chad military base

Ramaphosa wants 250Mt of freight moved by rail by 2029

The seventh administration aims to push rail as the “backbone of transport” in the country, with President Cyril Ramaphosa urging that rail lines transport at least 250-million tonnes of freight a year by 2029.

With Transnet set to finalise its Network Statement by year-end, Ramaphosa noted that this would help increase the volume of goods transported by rail, while also allowing access to third-party operators on the State’s rail network.

In marking the progress made in the rail sector, he pointed to the collaboration between government, business and labour to increase freight volumes on the rail network and said the National Logistics Crisis Committee’s Freight Logistics Roadmap would assist with security, operational improvement and capital investment.

In public transport, the President noted the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa’s achievement in the restoration of 31 of 40 priority rail corridors back to operation.

He acknowledged a lack of maintenance, and vandalism, of the public rail sector as hindrances to providing quality transport to South Africans, and assured that restoring public rail transport could play a significant role in reducing the cost of living for the poor.

Morgan Stanley sees fiscal gains easing South Africa junk rating

South Africa’s improving economic prospects after years of lackluster growth will result in better fiscal metrics and may soon lead to an upgrade of its junk-rated debt, according to RMB Morgan Stanley.

Positive sentiment in the continent’s most industrialised economy has built up since the African National Congress formed a governing coalition with business-friendly parties after losing its parliamentary majority for the first time since 1994 in the May 29 election.

Reforms undertaken by Cyril Ramaphosa during his first term as president have also boosted the outlook and triggered a wave of investment by multinationals as well as rallies in the rand, bonds and the benchmark stock index.

Morgan Stanley says South Africa stands out as the fastest-improving fiscal story across its emerging-market scope of coverage when measuring for fiscal-risk premia.

It expects a budget update on Wednesday to confirm a primary surplus in the year through March 2024, and the positive balance to grow from an estimated 0.3% of gross domestic product to 0.7% of GDP in the current period. It also sees government debt stabilising at around 74% of GDP over the medium term.

Around 40 soldiers killed in attack on Chad military base

Around 40 soldiers were killed in an attack on a military base in Chad's Lake region yesterday, the central African country's presidency said.

President Mahamat Idriss Deby launched an operation to track down the assailants.

The presidency did not name the group responsible for the attack. The region is often attacked by the Boko Haram insurgency, which erupted in northeast Nigeria in 2009 and spread to the west of Chad.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today

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