Source: ED to commission leased NRZ equipment – NewsDay Zimbabwe February 19, 2018
President Emmerson Mnangagwa will on Wednesday commission equipment leased by the National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) from Transnet.
BY BUSINESS REPORTER
The equipment, comprising 13 locomotives, 200 wagons and 34 coaches, is being leased from South African rail utility, Transnet, under a clause in the framework agreement between the NRZ and the Diaspora Investment Development Group (DIDG)/Transnet Consortium, according to NRZ’s spokesperson, Nyasha Maravanyika.
“Under that clause, DIDG/Transnet will hire out equipment for use by the NRZ while negotiations on the recapitalisation deal are finalised,” he said.
Maravanyika said the equipment will address resource gaps in NRZ’s operations as an interim solution.
So far, seven locomotives, 150 wagons and seven coaches have arrived in the country.
The remainder of the equipment will be delivered in due course.
The DIDG/Transnet consortium won a bid to partner NRZ in the $400 million recapitalisation project. The project will involve the rehabilitation and renewal of plant, equipment, rolling stock, signalling and telecommunications infrastructure and the supporting information technology (IT) systems.
The project will also see the repairing and rehabilitation of infrastructure and equipment such as locomotives, wagons and coaches as well as phased modernisation of train control system. The rail parastatal is targeting to move four million tonnes of freight in 2018, up 25% from last year’s figures on the back of service level agreements signed with key customers.
Last year, NRZ signed a deal with Zimasco and CFM of Mozambique, which saw the parastatal moving about one million tonnes of chrome annually from the Great Dyke to the ports of Beira and Maputo along the Mozambican rail network.
COMMENTS
Did ED pay this money from his pockets – or was it the people of Zimbabwe via the Governemnt coffers?
Can we answer “both”… because all that wealth in Mnangagwa’s pocket was stolen from the people. If not, let him explain the source. We’ll be listening. (Maybe he was out nights digging for diamonds with a torch or panning for gold in the moonlight?)
How long do you think that lease will last before Zim goes in arrears on the payments? Then out comes the begging bowl again demanding someone bail them out.
Ndebele, you well know that Mnangagwa’s wealth came from the Zim coffers… stolen from the people, pure and simple, just like in every other communist-inspired country.