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Sorry South Africa, China’s Not Going to Finance a New Joburg-Durban High-Speed Railway

by Cobus van Staden

Chen Xiaodong, China’s ambassador to South Africa, recently caused a small flurry of press coverage by seeming to imply that China could be moving towards funding a high-speed rail link between SA’s economic heartland, Gauteng, and Durban, its most important harbor. 

According to breathless local coverage, “money men from Beijing” are working on a feasibility study, causing a “palpable jolt of excitement” about the possibility of high-speed freight and rail transport. 

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