A section of the Tazara Railway line. File
By Songa wa Songa
In Summary
Due to dwindling business and management woes, the
partner governments reportedly agreed that each country would take care
of its side of the railway network.
The government of China has expressed readiness
to finance reconstruction of the struggling Tanzania and Zambia Railway
Authority (Tazara) if the firm is to be managed jointly as originally
envisaged.
Speaking to The Citizen in an exclusive
interview in Dar es Salaam, the Chinese ambassador to Tanzania, Mr Lu
Youqing, said Tazara is not only a symbol of friendship between his
country and Tanzania and Zambia, but it's also an important economic
infrastructure that should not be allowed to disintegrate.
He said China was ready to provide financial and
technical support, but on condition that the two countries come up with a
comprehensive rehabilitation and management proposal that would see the
railway effectively run jointly by Tanzania and Zambia, and not
separately as was recently decided.
“Today we are in a much better position to support
Tazara; in 1965 when we agreed to finance its construction, our per
capita GDP was just $100 but now it is $6,000,” he said.
The 1,860km long railway from Dar es Salaam to the
town of Kapiri Mposhi in Zambia was built from 1970 to 1975 with
financial and technical support from the People’s Republic of China and
has since been managed jointly by Tanzania and Zambia.
However, due to dwindling business and management
woes, the partner governments reportedly agreed that each country would
take care of its side of the railway network. The minister for
Transport, Dr Harrison Mwakyembe, announced in Dar es Salam that
Tanzania would oversee the operations between Dar es Salaam and Tunduma
while Zambia would administer operations between Tunduma and
Kapiri-Mposhi, a strategy aimed at improving Tazara performance within
the next three months.
Regional managers for both sides would be in
charge of the new system and their performance would be evaluated at the
end of this period, he said.
The Zambian government promptly responded by
distancing itself from Dr Mwakyembe’s statement and insisted that the
partner governments had not reached such an agreement and if anything,
that was Tanzania’s desire, not Zambia’s. Zambian minister for
Transport, Works, Supply and Communications Yamfwa Mukanga, was quoted
by Lusaka newspapers as saying the reported pronouncement by Tanzania
was not what was discussed at a recent Tazara Council of Ministers
meeting in Lusaka.
Mr Mukanga, however, said if that was what
Tanzania wanted, the Zambian part of the railway was also ready to
operate as an independent entity.
“We did not discuss that... but we spoke about a
mapping a strategy on how we will enhance the operations of Tazara and
the introduction of call centres,’’ he was quoted as saying.
The contradicting statements came shortly after
the two countries agreed to provide the railways authority with $80
million (Sh128 billion) in the next 12 months.
At a meeting held in Lusaka, the Tazara Council of
Ministers, which is the firm’s highest policy organ, resolved to make
the funds available following months of low productivity and operational
disruptions.
A statement issued at the end of the meeting said
that poor performance of Tazara was a result of frequent breakdowns,
accidents, unstable labour atmosphere and lack of working capital to pay
salaries and procure fuels and lubricants for the trains.
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