Chronicle Editor
Leonard Ncube, [email protected]
THE Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Transport and Infrastructure Development is touring National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) properties across the country to assess the state of infrastructure.
This comes as the rail transport parastatal which also has vast property, real estate, land and truck assets, is working on identifying and surveying all its properties active and dormant and those either leased or occupied by third parties.
The committee chaired by Cde Knowledge Kaitano, who is Mudzi West Constituency Member of Parliament started the tour in Bulawayo before moving to Dete and Hwange. This morning they toured the Victoria Falls Hotel, the Victoria Falls Bridge, NRZ station and Landela Complex which are owned by NRZ.
The railway company co-owns the Victoria Falls Hotel and Victoria Falls Bridge with Zambia Railways through Emerged Railways Properties, a company co-owned by Zimbabwe and Zambia.
Cde Kaitano said the tour was an opportunity for Parliament to appreciate challenges faced by NRZ and help the parastatal to fill the gaps.
“In the past two days there are things we have seen and we don’t want to just highlight them but we want to walk with you to close the gaps. NRZ is not the management or board issue, it is everybody’s issue. We have seen the assets that you have and we have already established areas of deliberation,” said Cde Kaitano.
NRZ board chair Advocate Mike Madiro said the state entity was critical on the logistics side as the Government implements the National Development Strategy 1 towards an Upper Middle-Income society by 2030.
“We have challenges and there is no doubt about that. We need to provide logistics solutions to the country’s agenda. Logistics is key to Government agenda and NRZ is important to achieve that agenda,” he said.
NRZ owes vast properties across the country and has title deeds for most of them although the parastatal is not getting real value as some have been run with “untight” leases.
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