Vusumuzi Dube
The move by National Railways of Zimbabwe to invest in drones has started paying off after the arrest of four women who were spotted extracting coal along train tracks.
In a post on X, the NRZ said security personnel deployed a drone along the tracks in Msasa, Harare and saw the women picking coal ash thereby vandalising the railway line in the process, which is a serious offence in terms of Zimbabwean laws.
Coal ash is mostly used to strengthen the rail formation where it passes through a swampy area. The quartet, Ethel Jonas, Priscilla Mazvarirahafa, Aruna Chimedza and Tatenda Mashingaidze were each sentenced to five years in jail after pleading guilty at the Harare Magistrates courts.
The spate of theft and vandalism of railway infrastructure has become a threat to economic viability while also endangering human lives and crippling bulk commercial cargo movement due to train derailments.
It is against this background that the NRZ has over the years intensified the fight against vandalism through massive capacitation of its loss control unit in terms of human resources and acquisition of drones amongst other hi-tech crime detection equipment.
New Ziana
Bongani Ndlovu
Online Reporter