Church charters train, fails to pay NRZ

Mashudu Netsianda Senior Court Reporter
A CHURCH organisation which hired a TRAIN to ferry congregants from Harare to Bulawayo and back has been dragged to court by the National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ). The Apostolic Christian Council of Zimbabwe (ACCZ) — a grouping of Apostolic and Zion churches — chartered the train in May 2012 to transport hundreds of worshippers.

In court papers filed this week, the NRZ is claiming nearly $30,000, including interest, from the ACCZ which claims a membership of eight million people in Zimbabwe.

“The parties entered into a contract of carriage… The ACCZ chartered a passenger train from NRZ between May 24, 2012, and May 26, 2012, to transport congregants from Bulawayo to Harare and back,” the NRZ says in summons filed by its lawyers, James, Moyo-Majwabu and Nyoni Legal Practitioners.

The church grouping, according to the NRZ, had agreed to pay $19,200 for the special train service. The ACCZ further bound itself in terms of the NRZ official tariff book to pay interest charges at the rate of one percent per fortnight from the period that defendant was in default.

The NRZ says the ACCZ, despite demands for payment, has refused, failed or neglected to pay, with interest of $9,984 accumulated from June 1, 2012, to May 3, 2014, now also due.

The ACCZ, through its lawyers Mugiya and Macharaga Law Chambers, has entered an appearance to defend itself against the NRZ claim. No hearing date in the civil matter has been set.

The NRZ has virtually collapsed after failing to pay its workers for the past 11 months.

The workers, who are owed thousands of dollars in unpaid transport allowances, have started daily nationwide protests aimed at forcing management to pay them their outstanding salaries.

The disgruntled workers on Monday staged a protest at the Bulawayo main station.  The workers are also preparing a petition calling for the ouster of management and directors whom they claimed to have “failed” them.

The NRZ has been without a substantive general manager since the death of retired air commodore Mike Karakadzai in August 2013.