The National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ), which can only move 2.3 million tonnes annually—down from the 12 million tonnes it could move 20 to 30 years ago—needs US$120 million to recapitalise its infrastructure and modernise, repair its locomotives and carriages.
As a result, most of the products that NRZ is unable to transport have ended up on the roads, where haulage trucks have filled the void at a great expense to the road network, which has been severely damaged by the movement of heavy cargo.
These figures were revealed by NRZ management to the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Transport and Infrastructural Development during a visit to the NRZ’s Mechanical Workshops in Bulawayo on Wednesday.
NRZ board member, Rtd Colonel Tshinga Dube, said the railway carrier could only move about 2.3 million tonnes in comparison to the 12 million tonnes it moved two decades ago.
“When ZISCO was operational, their business was enough to raise salaries for the whole railways. I will ask what went wrong? Is it the railways or the ZISCO industry that collapsed? As a result, we lost income, which was enough to pay all our salaries,” Dube said during a briefing with the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Transport and Infrastructural Development.
“During our peak time, some 20 to 30 years ago, NRZ was freighting 12 million tonnes a month, but now we’re down to 2.3 million in comparison. We can see there is a problem in the sense that we have lost most of our wagons, locomotive engines, and so forth compared to what was available at that time.”
The NRZ board member said it is very difficult to finance the railways as it needs massive funding.
“This is why most countries must go through the World Bank to finance their railways. But from our resources, it’s not easy. It’s very expensive,” he said, noting that the focus was going towards road rehabilitation.
“We must be mindful of the fact that the more you use roads, especially with heavy trucks, the roads don’t last. If only we could share this money between road building and railway building, it would save a lot of money because our roads will last longer and our trains will transport more goods.”
Chairperson of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Transport and Infrastructural Development, Knowledge Kaitano, concurred that Zimbabwe’s road network has been overloaded by goods that could come on rail.
“As we have been discussing, we have realised that the infrastructure required is there for NRZ but what is missing is the modernization and technology that is critical for NRZ to facilitate certain logistical issues,” he said.
Kaitano said NRZ can repair its infrastructure and has the skills foundation but the challenge was capitalisation.
“NRZ needs US$120 million which should be able to at least put NRZ on the right pedestal to start effectively contributing to economic development in terms of providing infrastructure. This money is not the end but the beginning as economic growth starts to build in the country. NRZ needs to continue recapitalising itself more and more as business grows where more minerals, fuel, and grain have to be moved locally and regionally,” he said.
The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee chairperson said state-owned institutions such as NRZ must look for Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) that can invest in their business.
“The government has encouraged ministries, government agencies, and departments, among the different funding models, to also have PPPs that will come in handy to rehabilitate infrastructure including rail,” Kaitano said.
“The national budget is too small to recapitalise NRZ to those economic and feasible levels, so we need private investors to work with NRZ to recapitalise and reengineer it. From there, NRZ will pick up and execute its responsibilities.”
The legislator lamented that about 4.6 million tonnes per year needs to be picked up but NRZ only has a capacity of 2.3 million tonnes.
“So a balance of 2 million is now finding itself on the road because NRZ does not have capacity in terms of locomotives and wagons,” Kaitano said.
“Manhize (Steel Plant) is about to start production and has about 2 million tonnes of products that need to be ferried, so it is very critical to increase production and continue economic growth.”
