TRANSPORT minister Joram Gumbo (pictured) told Senate that the situation at the comatose National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) had worsened, making it difficult to attract investors and resuscitate it.
Gumbo said NRZ operations have been on a downward spiral for years now.
“Just yesterday (Wednesday) we presented a paper to Cabinet to look at options to resuscitate NRZ, but the problem is that their books are very bad to the extent it is difficult to attract partners, but we are negotiating with different companies for partnership,” he said.
Gumbo said the poor performance by NRZ was contributing to the dilapidation of roads in the country as heavy goods were carried by road instead of rail.
He said one of the problems that affected NRZ was overstaffing, where they used to have 20
000 employees, which dropped to 12 000 in 1990 before the current idle 5 000.
Gumbo also told the Senate that government would not compensate vehicles damaged by potholes, adding it was the duty of vehicle owners to insure their vehicles.
The Transport minister recently told journalists that the death of NRZ has forced transporters to move heavy loads such as granite stone, coal and raw minerals by road.
“When we construct roads it is done in such a way that some roads are only meant for light vehicles and medium toll vehicles like the Harare Bindura road, but that road is now being used by trucks which carry up to 50 tonnes of black granite stones and this is now destroying the road. The point is that rail, which is supposed to provide transport for such heavy stones is not working properly and, therefore, people are forced to use the road,” Gumbo said.
Government has come under fire over allegations that Gumbo’s ministry was allowing the construction of substandard roads, with most falling apart inside five years amid corruption accusations.
NRZ board chairman, Larry Mavhima, backed Gumbo saying that the viability of the parastatal was vital to road maintenance and durability.
“We have to access funding so that we turn around the fortunes of NRZ and allow it to play its role in reliving the burden of the toll brought by heavy trucks on our roads, unfortunately before we are capitalised transporters will continue using road,” he said.
Next our roads without repairing them for years on end,” he said.
The party’s Matabeleland South chairperson Pilate Ndebele said the government’s declaration of some roads as a state of disaster will not help matters.
“This government is now blaming the destruction of the infrastructure on the rains, forgetting that since independence they have not been rehabilitating the infrastructure,” Ndebele said, adding devolution was the answer to the problem of infrastructure decay. – Newsday
True..Very true
Its the politics of tribe that has destroyed the country. Nkomo warned you people in the 1980s. You never listened – instead you chose Mugabe – the man of force and violence. Any nation where only one man’s word carries the day is a doomed nation!!
It is your living spirits grandfathers who destroyed everything in this country. I honestly doubt if you people still think that you can do it alone.it started with taking Matebele lives,jobs,land shutting down industries and you became too greedy now you are crying. It really is a curse to be a Mgabe
I pains my heart to look at where we came from and where are now. We have seen all being destroyed, from Zisco steel, Wankie colliery, NRZ, ZINWA, Lancashire steel, Sable chemicals, Zimalloys, Zimglass, all major hospitals, all government schools. They have destroyed in the name of “comrade, tisu takarwa hondo”
NRZ is just a tip of the iceberg. Most parastatals, local councils, state enterprises etc face the same dilemma. The people at the helm of these organisations only think of lining their pockets and don’t give a damn about the performance of the institutions nor the welfare of the rest of the employees below them. They only think of getting expensive imported vehicles which are replaced every 3 to 5 years, holiday packages paid for by the institutions, school fess for their children at very expensive schools, colleges and universities, obsene salaries and allowances. They don’t care a hoot about borrowing to sustain their unsatiable life styles.What happened to the execise to expose and correct some of these unwarranted obsene benefits from these institutions.