Saturday, September 28, 2024

Chinese team arrives in Tanzania to review TAZARA before takeover

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A task force from the state-run China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) has arrived in Dar es Salaam to conduct a comprehensive business and technical inspection of the Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority (TAZARA) before China’s proposed takeover of the railway line.

The CCECC is negotiating a concession deal with the governments of Tanzania and Zambia to operate TAZARA, as geopolitical tensions rise over control of trading routes for critical minerals in Africa.

The Chinese task force will carry out the inspection from Dar es Salaam to Kapiri-Mposhi to assess TAZARA’s operational and business model, setting the stage for the submission by CCECC of a revitalisation proposal for TAZARA to the shareholders of the railway line — the governments of Tanzania and Zambia.

CCECC, a subsidiary of the China Railway Construction Corporation, is expected to negotiate a public-private partnership (PPP) concession under the build-operate-transfer model with the two governments to operate TAZARA.

The Chinese company wants to upgrade the 1,160km cross-border railway by investing an estimated $1 billion.

“CCECC’s task force team will engage in substantive discussions covering critical aspects, including the operational and management model of TAZARA, the proposed financing plan facilitated by the China Development Bank, local taxation policies, and related matters,” TAZARA’s spokesman, Conrad Simuchile, said in a statement.

The 11-member Chinese due diligence team is led by Peng Danyang, Managing Director of the Ethiopia-Djibouti railway line.

Denyang’s role in the inspection team suggests that China could model the TAZARA concession on the Ethiopia-Djibouti railway line, which operates under a PPP model, involving the governments of Ethiopia and Djibouti and a subsidiary of CCECC.

The governments of Tanzania and Zambia and CCECC have set April 2024 as the target for conclusion of negotiations for takeover of the railway line by China.

The concession is expected to give a much-needed lifeline to the almost 50-year-old Chinese-built line, which is grossly underperforming.

Observers say China’s keen interest in taking over TAZARA is linked to its desire to use the railway line for strategic mining exports from Zambia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

China owns substantial copper and cobalt mines in Zambia and the DRC.

21 COMMENTS

    • Our father Dr Kenneth Kaunda had a vision but it died because our own people who like the white matako betrayed him. First he was focused on ensuring jobs were run by Zambian graduates, secondly he aimed at having more than half of essentials were made or manufactured in Zambia tv sets, radios, motor vehicles , drinks, clothing, copper cables.
      .. unfortunately the same people he educated turned against him. We were shouting: Chiindi chashika, kimye kyafika, Kaunda kuya bebele. Here we’re now and we don’t know where to start from.

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  1. Africans mostly think on a family scale and never on grand scale. Countries that prosper usually have a common draw towards their country’s economic growth. Conflicts and wars on a grand scale creat a unit and prosperity.

  2. Our politicians our vision and policies are limited to 5 years election cycles. How did we end with a Lungu as president, Lusambo and Kampyongo as ministers? Look at how Lungu and Musukwa destroyed the copperbelt whilst the miners and their labour unions cheered! How did we end up with a 31 billion USD debt from 2 billion USD in 10 years? What is there to to show this massive debt? We need to remodel our governance system from this western style democracy where all manner of crooks and criminals present themselves. They take the elections for gambling casino. If they win elections then it’s a ticket to get rich with ill-gotten riches through outright theft. Why are jealousy of our fellow hard working Zambian financial success?

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  3. This would have never been allowed to happen under pf. Remember when I said hh is back to finish off privatisation he started in thr 90s. Hh is only good at selling state resources. At least for us we borrowed for infrastructure development and not sold our souls

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    • @Kaizar “Kanyenge Nyoko” Zulu: HH cannot privatise Tazara by himself, which is owned by Tanzania and Zambia jointly. The truth of the matter is that the railway line needs upgrading, and the two countries are unwilling, in the case of Zambia, unable to pay for it. Motherfaka, HH had never worked in Zambian government a day in his life. It was your Chitemene style slash and burn style of government under Chipuba where you listened to white people and handed the Zambian economy to them on silver platter, thinking that they were miracle workers who fix everything. Frederick Chipupa handed the mines, including the a very lucrative emerald mine, to the father of Elon Musk, who is now the world’s richest man.,, to be continued

    • @@Kaizar “Kanyenge Nyoko” Zulu: continued… You are the one who sold parastatals that are vital to the economy and were already profitable, such as Chilanga Cement, to foreign swindlers. You are the one who removed the laws that barred foreigners from owning land in Zambia, and sold swarths of our best agricultural land to your homosexual boyfriends from Lebanon. Michael Satan and Edgar “Johnathan Mutawire” Lungu are the ones who presided over Chinese take over of ZNBC. As usual, when you f@ck up, you cry to or cry about the nearest Tonga. No motherfaka! Mwanawassa, a Lenje, and Magande, a Tonga, cleaned up the debt of Zambia. As a result, the country began to grow rapidly…\ to be continued

    • @Kaizar “Kanyenga Nyoko” Zulu: I remember a story where the round mound of sh!t, Kashimba Chibwi Li, going around stating that Zambia could afford the high levels of debt because it had a GDP of US $27 billion. The problem with GDP evaluations is that they as emphemeral as they susceptible to many factor, economic management being one of them. Lungu somehow managed the feat, achieved by no other president of Zambia, of actually reducing the GDP of the country. He piled on debt like the drunk that he was, and by the time he left, the country owed any untinkable US $32.8 billion. This is an amount so colossal there is no way Zambia will be able to pay it off in the next 50 years. If you are wondering why I hate you so much, this is why. You personally, motherfaka, were a part of this sh!t!..

    • The Chinese objective is not for passenger transport but export of minerals copper/cobalt and import of processing materials eg sulphur from and to there mines in Zambia and DRC. Since Chinese govt enforces discipline in its patriotic people and companies, all Chinese copper will fall in line and use the railway. Unlike in Zambia where Sata and Lungu 3 billion USD was borrowed for Zambia railways and Zesco. Yet there are NO assets to show for this huge liability. SI was issued to transport goods by rail but no one took heed because politicians and powerful people owned trucking companies. The PF leadership must be made to account for recklessly wasted 10 years. It was terrible and criminal.

  4. @Kaizar “Kanyenga Nyoko” Zulu: I remember a story where the round mound of sh!t, Kashimba Chibwi Li, going around stating that Zambia could afford the high levels of debt because it had a GDP of US $27 billion. The problem with GDP evaluations is that they as emphemeral as they susceptible to many factor, economic management being one of them. Lungu somehow managed the feat, achieved by no other president of Zambia, of actually reducing the GDP of the country. He piled on debt like the drunk that he was, and by the time he left, the country owed any untinkable US $32.8 billion. This is an amount so colossal there is no way Zambia will be able to pay it off in the next 50 years. If you are wondering why I hate you so much, this is why. You personally, motherfaka, were a part of this sh!t!

  5. Anzanu awo are moving onto the global scale while you wallow in obsolete Umodzi Kum’mawa concepts. By the way, this name was used in the late 60s to early 70s to route out non-Easterners from that province. Watch this Chinese outfit churn out profit out of thin air. Continue with your pathetic inward-looking tribal shenanigans.

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    • I dont know why they are voting you down. These are archaic movements! Its now One Zambia One Nation not One Eastern! Pool our resources and progress

    • Kalok and Ayatollah,Well Sayed. The shallowness of most of these boggers is heartrending. We have such deadwood as DejaFoool always leading the narratives on most issues that are very vital to our very national survival. Zambia is in dire need of rational ,well educated and informed citizens How I whish I could come find it and whip it together with Ka Zulu

  6. When Akashambatwa Mbikusita Lewanika served as MD, he left a survival plan and even began efforts to resuscitate the beleaguered railway company. When Government changed, the newcomers thought he wasn’t politically correct and decided to discard him together with his plan. Today the Chinese are here for a planned takeover. They might just implement his plan and make it. There’s nothing special about the Chinese. It’s our own stu pidity that makes us fail

    • Chinese are hardworkers. They have proved it. Just check their projects in Zambia before checking in other countries

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