admin
WORKERS at the struggling National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) who have gone for nine months without salaries, have downed tools demanding payment. The workers and representatives from the Zimbabwe Amalgamated Railway Workers Union (ZARWU) sat outside the company’s provincial offices in Mutare demanding to be addressed by management.
They said the parastatal has been paying them 20 percent of their salaries which is between $40 and $80 per month depending on one’s grade.
Andrew Bakasa, who heads the NRZ’s eastern region operations, refused to address the workers, referring them to the head office in Bulawayo.
NRZ public relations manager, Fanuel Masikati, told The Source yesterday that the company has been facing challenges in paying its workers but said the challenges were beyond their control.
“Like any other company now, we’ve challenges with salaries especially at the beginning of the year and also the fact that companies that we work with haven’t yet opened,” Masikati told The Source.
“Generally, business is slow during the beginning of the year coupled by the economic environment. All these factors affect us in settling salaries.”
The stricken parastatal is transporting six million tonnes of goods per annum compared to 80 million tonnes the system was designed for, due to a depressed market and reduced capacity. In 2013, it moved 3.6 million tonnes of goods against a target of 6 million tonnes. Comparatively, in 1998, the NRZ moved 18 million tonnes.
The parastatal is saddled with a $144 million debt raked up since dollarisation in 2009 and registered a $17 million deficit in the first five months of 2014, generating $44 million in revenue against $61 million expenditure.
The government has said it was negotiating with the Development Bank of South Africa (DBSA) for a loan of up to $700 million to fund NRZ’s rehabilitation. — The Source
Online Reporter