Sat, 20 Jan 2018 10:35:43 +0000
By VIOLET TEMBO
WE do not need to be fed with bread crumbs but capital to enable us reach a breakpoint of 600,000 metric tons of cargo, says Tanzania Zambia Railways (TAZARA) chief executive officer Bruno Ching’andu.
And Mr. Ching’andu disclosed that the Zambian and Tanzanian governments had agreed to fund procurement of tractor motors worth U$ 9.77 million.
Speaking at a media interactive forum in Ndola, Mr. Ching’andu said TAZARA did not need government to pay salaries for its employees because it had sufficient assets.
Mr. Ching’andu however bemoaned that some of the assets had been neglected for a long time. “We appreciate what government is doing but the situation now is that TAZARA does not need to be fed with crumbs from pieces of bread…if the company does not attain its break point of 600,000 tons, we will be making losses.
“We can pay salaries for our workers .We have sufficient assets but the problem is that some assets have been neglected for a long time such as the minute house office, which has not been in use for 10 years now.” he said.
Mr. Ching’andu added that with the increase of competition in the transport sector, TAZARA’s performance had reduced in the past years.
He said with intensified marketing by the company, freight movement for the year 2017 had improved- registering 171,000 metric tons of cargo- and set 200,000 metric tons as the target for 2018.
Mr. Ching’andu said transit days had reduced from 8.5 days to 6.5 days between Dar es Salaam and Kapiri Mposhi.
He said passenger traffic had gone up registering, 487,856 passengers in 2017.
Mr Ching’andu emphasized that the key performance indicators in the past year had gone up without any injection of funds or extra input.
Meanwhile, Mr. Ching’andu said TAZARA still had a challenge of insufficient funds for recapitalization, unserviced debt, and deferred maintenance of locomotives.
He explained that weak balance sheets had resulted in the company failing to borrow recapitalization funds from the bank.
