THE running of the Tanzania Zambia Railways Authority (TAZARA) will be decentralised by August 1 this year and not that the two countries will split the company as earlier reported, the Tanzanian government has clarified.
Tanzania’s Ministry of Transport permanent secretary Shaaban Mwinjaka said in a statement yesterday that effective August 1, 2014, TAZARA operations will be decentralised as the powers to run the company would be given to the regions (Tanzania and Zambia).
Dr Shaaban said the arrangement would be monitored for a period of six months and reviewed thereafter.
He, however, said some media had misunderstood the announcement made by the Tanzanian minister of Transport Harrison Mwakyembe at a Press conference on July 14 this year concerning the decentralisation to mean a split of Zambia and Tanzania in the running of the railway company discussed at the Council of Ministers earlier.
The Council of Ministers for TAZARA comprising ministers for Transport, Finance and Commerce from the governments of Tanzania and Zambia held its 60th meeting in Lusaka on July 4, 2014.
Dr Shaaban said the resolutions the Council made were to decentralise the head office as Article 4 Section (iv) of the TAZARA Act No.4 of 1995 provided for that.
In the decentralised arrangement, the regions shall be empowered to be productive and operate more commercially, while the head office shall remain with the role of policy-making, regulation, control and supervision.
“It must be noted that the ownership of TAZARA remains unitary. It must also be noted that the freight trains will continue to run from Dar-es-Salaam to New Kapiri Mposhi, and vice versa, as the case has been in the past,” Dr Shaaban said.
The TAZARA Council also approved the injection of US$80 million into the TAZARA budget for the year 2014/2015 for the purpose of recapitalisation and working capital of which $9.2 million would be released immediately for clearing of workers’ salary arrears, among other commitments.
It also resolved that the process of appointing and confirming officers in higher positions of the company was expected to be concluded in August this year and that the regions would start passenger train services within their regions.
The statement was released by TAZARA head of communications Conrad Simuchile.
Meanwhile, TAZARA unionised staff in Kapiri Mposhi went on strike on Tuesday and the company was forced to refund all the passengers that were to travel with the Mukuba Express Train that was scheduled to depart for Dar-es-Salaam at 16:00hrs.
Mr Simuchile confirmed the strike of the workers who were demanding their unpaid salaries.
He said the workers blocked the passenger train from leaving Kapiri Mposhi.
Mr Simuchile said 101 passengers bought tickets worth K20,584.40 of whom 55 were travelling to Tanzania and 46 were traveling within Zambia.
Unionised workers in Mpika two weeks ago also protested against non-payment of salary arrears during which they damaged some company property and forced some travellers to move to another train.
it is not the media the misunderstood the tanzaniani minister but the whole zambian cabinet some ministers even went to swore that the will run it alone if the tanzaniani government wont rescind the decision. bunch of retards, I don’t know what the son of Dr Kaunda does because he is the most disfunctional deputy minister have ever heard at times he act as RTSA and at times as food reserve argency agent.
The media did reported the collect information. Tanzania has just changed after Zambia declared that they can go solo as well.
What “Collect” information did they gather??? Is what they “Reported” correct??
Even the Tanzanians have come to realize that one cant do business with this stupid PF government.
Here we go as usual!
TAZARA is a joint venture between Tanzania and Zambia hence the name! This joint venture has been very unprofitable since its inception in 1976. Mr Moron, both Zambian and Tanzanian successive governments have failed to run it and so something had to be done about it .
There is no smoke without Fire, its now apparent that both Zambia and Tanzania discuss the matter at there next meeting for a detailed clarification from Tanzania. The matter has been going on even within the workers for same time, both board members are ware and they should not pretend as if the media wrongly reported. This is a sign of some hidden agenda and it will soon explode in the near future.
How can the Tanzanian Government make that decision without the knowledge of their Zambian counterpart? i thought it was supposed to be a collective decision?
the TZ ps is just being deplomatic. he is only playing with words. technically speaking,the line is being split by the so called decentralisation. if each region will handle its affairs then what’s that called? and that is the way to go as the current levels of mistrust between the two regions are detrimental.
If Tazara remains a unitary entity how will the decentralised administration work more efficiently? The two governments should bite the bullet, admit they have failed to run the company and let Zambia Railways run the Zambian side of the railway and hopefully Tanzania will do the same from their end.
Zed stands to lose out. Tz won’t lose a thing… Its up to GRZ to make sure this partnership works.
I understand the work culture of the employees of Tazara is very bad because no one takes ownership. Its like the ”ni va boma’ mentality but amplified. Zambia needs this Tazara thing more than Tanzania. We therefore need to take a leadership role but at the same time trade carefully(diplomacy) because we stand to lose out.
If TAZARA will fall apart, Zambia will be in a looser side.