ALL the 40 candidates who had applied for the position of general manager at the ailing parastatal National Railways of Zimbabwe failed to make the grade, an official has said.
This, experts said, once again raised questions on whether the country could be feeling the effects of the brain drain or simply that the company had gone down to the extent of failing to attract qualified personnel.
At the beginning of the year at least 40 prospective candidates had applied to head the parastatal and six were shortlisted by end of February but all of them failed to make the grade, board chairman Engineer Alvord Mabena confirmed.
In an interview with Sunday Business, Eng Mabena said the parastatal was set to engage a local employment agency to hunt for the right person for the job with special focus on the diaspora to entice some of the Zimbabweans outside the country who might be interested in the job.“From the first attempt we made, we did not quite get suitable candidates. We have gone through the processes and we would like to test the market once again including the diaspora to find if there is any suitable Zimbabwean out there to fill the post,” said Eng Mabena.
He said the parastatal was now in a hurry to complete the process as it had managed to finalise positions at director level hence it was imperative to fill all vacant positions in order to stabilise the system.
“We managed to get two suitable candidates for the positions of director of operations and director of finance respectively. We want to fill all positions to stabilise the system so that when funding comes through we are ready to go,” he said.
Speaking on the type of person needed to head NRZ, Eng Mabena said they wanted “a robust person experienced in executive management with a good track record of turnaround strategies. The person has to be able to run a large company like NRZ and someone with a railway background will be preferable”.
The post of NRZ general manager fell vacant after Air Commodore Retired Mike Karakadzai died in August 2013 in a car accident.- State Media
6 Replies to “NRZ Seeks Diaspora Boss as 40 Fail To Impress”
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what an insult to Zimbabweans (engineers/the institution of engineers). why did mabena in his wisdom failed to groom any one of the engineers or all the engineers for the post of general manager.
have you ever seen an advert for OK zim mangers/general managers/ceos in the papers? or stanchart/Barclays.
a company previously run by a retired army person, its now so special that all 40 local zimbabwean candidates cant qualify. mabhena be serious.
this situation is across all parastatals. there is no succession plan. import someone with no idea, who is in darkness about the rails in zim and see the disaster that will follow.
mabena may be targeting someone in the diaspora. zesa had to call back someone from Botswana. its a shame.
my advise to mabhena is that he already has a candidate in one of the directors. the post of that directorship was not advertised, so continue to handpick, whats now your problem.
who will manage the politics of that position. mabhena will you cancel the contractor for haulage trucks carrying coal from hwange.
I suggest mabhena reclaims the position of general manager for at least 1 year while he grooms that director or let another retired army personnel take the position.
what an insult to Zimbabweans (engineers/the institution of engineers). why did mabena in his wisdom failed to groom any one of the engineers or all the engineers for the post of general manager.
have you ever seen an advert for OK zim mangers/general managers/ceos in the papers? or stanchart/Barclays.
a company previously run by a retired army person, its now so special that all 40 local zimbabwean candidates cant qualify. mabhena be serious.
this situation is across all parastatals. there is no succession plan. import someone with no idea, who is in darkness about the rails in zim and see the disaster that will follow.
mabena may be targeting someone in the diaspora. zesa had to call back someone from Botswana. its a shame.
my advise to mabhena is that he already has a candidate in one of the directors. the post of that directorship was not advertised, so continue to handpick, whats now your problem.
who will manage the politics of that position. mabhena will you cancel the contractor for haulage trucks carrying coal from hwange.
I suggest mabhena reclaims the position of general manager for at least 1 year while he grooms that director or let another retired army personnel take the position.
I don’t like the tribalistic connotations but I agree that Mabhena was a good manager.You need to consider the fact that the macroeconomic fundamendals have greatly changed for the worse since Mabhena’s time. 1.the economy was still robust then and demand for rail transport was high. 2. NRZ had the benefit of foreign funding from the IMF/World Bank. It is therefore incorrect to claim that the NRZ performed largely due to Ndebele blood in top management. I that was the case why is it that Bulawayo is as good as a ghost town right now when 99 percent of the blood in it is Ndebele. The real issue is undercapitalisation, PERIOD.
I don’t like the tribalistic connotations but I agree that Mabhena was a good manager.You need to consider the fact that the macroeconomic fundamendals have greatly changed for the worse since Mabhena’s time. 1.the economy was still robust then and demand for rail transport was high. 2. NRZ had the benefit of foreign funding from the IMF/World Bank. It is therefore incorrect to claim that the NRZ performed largely due to Ndebele blood in top management. I that was the case why is it that Bulawayo is as good as a ghost town right now when 99 percent of the blood in it is Ndebele. The real issue is undercapitalisation, PERIOD.
Oh my! I did not know that Alvord Mabhena was the Board Chairman of the NRZ. The game is on now at NRZ. I know Alvord personally and professionally. The time since he was the Chief Mechanical Engineer at NRZ during the time of Mr. Singh. This was the team comprised of a few like Alvord Mabhena, Madhlela, Samson Zumbika, Grace Lupepe. When Singh left, the obvious candidate was Alvord Mabhena. I understand “Bambazonke” wanted a Shona like Samson Zumbika but really this did not work. Mabhena made us proud as people from his birth place and the “Mtwakazi” clan.
NRZ was efficient and due to Alvord’s leadership the company made profits. I understand in 1992 there was a strike by NRZ employees and the spokeswoman (Lupepe) said in a day they lost more than 50 Million. Hey! those were the days when NRZ was run by the Ndebele blood. This leadership was fair and efficient.
There were not Ndebeles only, most of the Chief Engineers were shona but Management was 75% Ndebele speaking people. Don’t get me wrong, I am not Ndebele but the leadership at NRZ inspired me especially the one under Mabhena.
My point is : Now to hear that Alvord is the board chairman I am convinced the glory days will come back. Also he will not employ a general manager for the sake of filling the vacancy. Lets watch this now. Mabhena will find a suitable candidate that is if no much hands get in there to spoil the soup.
I give you the thumbs up mfuna ka “Vhot-Vhot”. Although Vhot-vhot is not your real father, he is part of your family. I just put his name because his name was an interesting one to us when we were very young.
Oh my! I did not know that Alvord Mabhena was the Board Chairman of the NRZ. The game is on now at NRZ. I know Alvord personally and professionally. The time since he was the Chief Mechanical Engineer at NRZ during the time of Mr. Singh. This was the team comprised of a few like Alvord Mabhena, Madhlela, Samson Zumbika, Grace Lupepe. When Singh left, the obvious candidate was Alvord Mabhena. I understand “Bambazonke” wanted a Shona like Samson Zumbika but really this did not work. Mabhena made us proud as people from his birth place and the “Mtwakazi” clan.
NRZ was efficient and due to Alvord’s leadership the company made profits. I understand in 1992 there was a strike by NRZ employees and the spokeswoman (Lupepe) said in a day they lost more than 50 Million. Hey! those were the days when NRZ was run by the Ndebele blood. This leadership was fair and efficient.
There were not Ndebeles only, most of the Chief Engineers were shona but Management was 75% Ndebele speaking people. Don’t get me wrong, I am not Ndebele but the leadership at NRZ inspired me especially the one under Mabhena.
My point is : Now to hear that Alvord is the board chairman I am convinced the glory days will come back. Also he will not employ a general manager for the sake of filling the vacancy. Lets watch this now. Mabhena will find a suitable candidate that is if no much hands get in there to spoil the soup.
I give you the thumbs up mfuna ka “Vhot-Vhot”. Although Vhot-vhot is not your real father, he is part of your family. I just put his name because his name was an interesting one to us when we were very young.