Chronicle Editor
Oliver Kazunga, Acting Business Editor
THE National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) is projecting a 31,6 percent revenue growth this year to $125 million largely underpinned by macro-economic performance.
NRZ general manager, Engineer Lewis Mukwada, said this during an interactive engagement with journalists at the Bulawayo Press Club on Wednesday evening.
“In terms of revenue in 2017, we were around $87 million, 2018 we went up to $95 million and this year we are projecting $125 million. But now it depends on how the economy behaves because if there is high inflation then those figures certainly change,” he said.
In recent years, NRZ operations have been negatively affected by the obsolete equipment and machinery as well as the harsh macro-economic environment.
The strategic transporter has a design capacity to move 18 million tonnes of freight a year.
“From 2009 we started picking up and I think we went up in 2014 to 3,8 million tonnes thereafter again we faced serious challenges where Hwange Colliery Company Limited started experiencing problems. Government also suspended the export of chrome ore so again we lost the bulk commodities that were underpinning our business and we went down again to 2,7 million tonnes that was now in 2016,” said Eng Mukwada.
The following year, he said, his organisation moved 3,1 million tonnes before the figure rose again to 3,4 million tonnes last year.
In 2016, NRZ workers embarked on a three-month strike over a 15 month cumulative salary backlog.
“First of all because of the cash flow challenges, we started paying people 30 percent of their salaries . . . and that circle we started by doing it in four weeks and as the situation got worse we were now paying a monthly salary over a period of six or eight weeks.
“As we were falling behind we were accumulating arrears and this is where we then ended up picking arrears of about 13 months,” said Eng Mukwada.
“In 2017, as NRZ business came up we went from that 50 percent to 60 and 70 percent with the lower earning employees getting 70 percent while the higher earners got 60 percent.”
Last year, the railways company was paying 80 and 90 percent of its workers salaries and this year the NRZ is back to 100 percent as its business continues to grow.
Turning to the NRZ $400 million recapitalisation deal entered into with the Diaspora Infrastructure Development Group/Transnet consortium in 2017 which will see the parastatal acquiring rolling stock, signalling equipment and information communication technology equipment to increase capacity utilisation, Eng Mukwada said the deal was still on.
However, he would not pre-empt latest progress on the recapitalisation project ahead of the concerned parties meeting scheduled for next week.
While the parastatal awaits financial closure of the $400 million recapitalisation project, an interim arrangement to the resource constraints at NRZ is in place.
And under the interim arrangement, the parastatal is leasing 13 locomotives, 200 wagons and seven coaches from South African rail utility, Transnet. -@okazunga
Online Reporter