R400m Dunnottar train plant contract awarded to black-owned firms

Gibela has awarded the Trencon Black Jills joint venture (JV) the R400-million contract to build the main site buildings at its Dunnottar train manufacturing plant, on the East Rand. The plant will be used to produce the 580 trains Gibela is to supply to the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa in a R51-billion deal signed in 2013. Another 20 trains will be imported from Brazil. Six of these trains are already in South Africa. Gibela CEO Marc Granger describes the 21-year-old Trencon Construction as the largest black-owned construction company in South Africa. The eight-year-old Black Jills Engineering is a black-women-owned firm.