Between November 1974 and August 1976, the South African Railways placed 150 Class 35-200 General Motors Electro-Motive Division type GT18MC diesel-electric locomotives in service.

[1][2] The Class 35-200 type GT18MC diesel-electric locomotive was designed for the South African Railways (SAR) by General Motors Electro-Motive Division (GM-EMD).

[1][2][3] While the first GMSA batch was being built, an order for one Class 35-200 GT18MC locomotive was received from AECI in Modderfontein, Johannesburg.

GM-EMD Class 35-200s were designed for light rail conditions across difficult terrain and they work on most branch lines in the central, eastern, northern and north-eastern parts of the country.

[4] Nine Class 35-200 locomotives were leased to CamRail, a company which had a twenty-year concession to operate the Cameroon National Railway.

In the 1990s many of the Class 35-200 units began to be repainted in the Spoornet orange livery with a yellow and blue chevron pattern on the buffer beams.

In the late 1990s many were repainted in the Spoornet blue livery with outline numbers on the long hood sides.

After 2008 in the Transnet Freight Rail (TFR) and Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) era, many were repainted in the TFR red, green and yellow livery and at least two were repainted in the PRASA purple Shosholoza Meyl livery.