From RSSA Gauteng’s On Track:
Between 1992 and 1994 Spoornet placed fifty class 38-000 locomotives in service. They are still the only dual-powered electro-diesel locomotives in use by Transnet Freight Rail, capable of running either on 3kV electricity off the catenary or on diesel alone.
The class 38 was designed to replace steam on pickup work on the Reef. The diesel part was to allow them to pick up and shunt wagons from non-electrified industrial sidings. Most of the locomotives are allocated to Gauteng depots at Germiston, Pyramid South and Krugersdorp, with a lone example based at Bloemfontein in the Free State
In 1998, forty of these locomotives (38-011 to 38-050) and a number of electric locomotives were sold to Maquarie-GETX (General Electric Finance) and leased back to Spoornet for a ten-year period that expired in 2008.]
According to etched wineglasses produced at the time when a special train ran from Johannesburg to Magaliesburg to commemorate the delivery of the final class 38, the delivery dates were: 38-001 18 April 1993 and 38-050, 30 July 1994.

Original article [Railways Africa]