Chronicle Editor
THE National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) owes its workers $90 million in unpaid salaries, according to a report by a Parliamentary Portfolio Committee.
“Employees are owed over $90 million in outstanding salaries while debts have ballooned to a staggering $176 million,” said the Committee on Transport and Infrastructural Development in its report on the turnaround strategy for the NRZ presented to Parliament recently.
The committee said out of a fleet size of 166 locomotives, NRZ has only 60 operating.
“These average between 33 and 50 years old whereas a locomotive has a useful lifespan of at most 25 years.
“Out of a total of 7 153 wagons, 3 641 have been decommissioned for various defects leaving only 3 512 in service; out of a fleet of 283 passenger coaches, only 108 are in use and these are in a deplorable state,” said the committee.
The committee urged Government to inherit the NRZ debt.
“Government must take over, or, at the very least, guarantee the debt owed to employees if NRZ is to attract serious private investors. This should be done by September 30, 2017,” the committee said.
NRZ is a key player in terms of commercial and industrial bulk goods transportation in the country. But its infrastructure has deteriorated in the last two decades, a situation made worse by a slump in economic activity that translated into low volumes for the railway transporter.
At peak in 1998, NRZ moved over 12 million tonnes of goods but last year, the parastatal moved less than three million of freight. — New Ziana
Bongani Ndlovu
Online Reporter