'NRZ Machines, Equipment Obsolete’

The National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ)’s machinery and locomotives are obsolete and not moving with changing technologies.

This was said by Transport and Infrastructural Development Minister Felix Mhona who was speaking after touring NRZ properties in Bulawayo on Friday. He said:

What I saw today belongs to the scrapyard. Those machines and equipment are outdated.

The NRZ has 10 working locomotives out of 67 and has failed to attract business from mining companies moving heavy metals in and outside the country.

The parastatal requires at least US$400 million to get back on its feet in the short term.

Mhona challenged the NRZ board to come up with a feasible and pragmatic turnaround strategy to revive the company.

The Minister said the board should look at strategic partnerships as the Treasury does not have adequate resources for the company. Said Mhona:

To capacitate NRZ from the fiscus, the cake is very small. We go each year as a ministry and sometimes you are given a third of what you are anticipating.

Despite the cake being small as a nation we are endowed with mineral resources and we can turn around the organisation ourselves.

It is not about having the money but also the capacity to have the ideas of generating the money. We need the NRZ board to give us a turnaround strategy.

The moment you go with a begging bowl to the Treasury you will be frustrated because the Treasury is incapacitated.

More: Sunday News