Transport, Works and Supply Minister Christopher Yaluma
Government has announced that it is keen to engage a new investor to run operations of the Zambia Railways Limited, Communications, Transport, Works and Supply Minister Christopher Yaluma has said.
Mr Yaluma repeated that Government decided to cancel the concession agreement with the Railway Systems of Zambia to save the company from total collapse and loss of assets.
Mr Yaluma said this when he featured during a live phone-in programme on Radio Mano in Kasama.
“As Government, we are keen to engaging another investor in the running of the railway company via joint ownership or equity from the Government with the majority coming from the private sector,” Mr Yaluma said.
He said railway transport was vital in ferrying various goods especially minerals and heavy machinery to save the road network.
“We all know what the Zambia Railways meant to the Zambian economy and there’s no way we could let something so critical in building up this economy go just like that and be ransacked. Pardon my word, it was ransacked by the people who we thought they could handle our railway network system, but they went ahead to ransack the railways,” he said.
Mr Yaluma also assured railway workers from TAZARA that they would be paid their dues before the end of next year.
He said Government was committed to revitalizing the company, citing among other measures, continued injection of funds and that it recently engaged 45 Chinese experts to conduct feasibility studies on the company.
“We have committed that we must pay all the pensioners from TAZARA, so be patient, it needs a lot of money, it has been left hanging for so many years without paying you. We will ensure that before the end of next year, we will do almost all the TAZARA ex-employees who have never had their monies paid,” he said.
In another development, Mr Yaluma has clarified the tender for the installation of the Electronic Zambia Transport Information System (e-ZamTis) for the Road Transport and Safety Agency (RTSA) had not yet been concluded nor awarded to any bidder, contrary to reports in some sections of the media.
“According to the Public Procurement Act No. 12 of 2008 and the Public Procurement Regulations of 2011, it is premature and illegal for anyone to comment on or attempt to influence the outcome of an ongoing public procurement process before it is concluded,” Mr Yaluma said this during a press briefing in Lusaka yesterday.
You’ve just realised that you cannot manage to run the company as country. Now, what if you wont find a company to run it especially that investors now know that pf is not a reliable govt.
Failure of state run corporates is a familiar refrain,a reccuring theme,the leitmotif of the zambian republic.Why do i feel this is yet another ruinous search that leads to another failed state entity?We’ve been on this rd before and its time we study what makes Ethiopian airlines,Kenya airways or Safaricom such successful state owned entities before we plunge RSZ into yet another failure.If kenya and Ethiopia can run successful companies without control by foreign investors why can’t Zed do it?
Oh why indeed. Ina word a few words I would say it’s because we are narrow minded, too one tracked to see how the benefits of actually running successfully a Co. Like ZR can bring myriad benefit to the country. Same could be said for the postal system as well as the training and discipline of police forces. Or the lack of adequate leadership and direction of tourism sector. The derelict state of operations at ZR is could be resolved in various ways. We, the public could be given a role in a selecting a particular solution.One viable solution is a public-private partnership. This would entail selling ownership to foreign and local investors while Gov. maintains a portion and a permanent seat of the board not the chairman position). which wld comprise of Zambian members with fixed pay.
@1 I think you meant to say government and not country because a counties have never run a company. But then again what is wrong in government realising that they have made a mistake and what mistake? Zambia/ Africa needs genuine investors. These type of investors have been hard to come by since colonial times. Yes, PF govt may have made it diffcult now but only for those kind of investors who want to continue stealing from Africa.
The railway line from Chingola to Livingstone is old and clapped out. If the recent delegation that went to Japan knew their priorities, they would have been talking railways to the Japanese because they fundis in this area. Alternatively, the government would initiate the refurbishment programme in small “bites” by refurbishing the railways in sections starting in Chingola. They obviously took over the railways “without a plan” of how it should be managed. The fear is that the system will be further stripped under their watch!!
Why not run it ourselves?? If its lack of funds lets sign another bond
We should be talking about electric trains those that do 400km/h. Imagine if we had such, you can be working in LSK and stay on the CB..
yeah,always been thinking about those.The only problem is we need expertise to maintain them,their accidents are quite deadly
The Patriotic Front in government shall seek to address and remedy the foregoing failures using locally driven social and economic initiatives through the empowerment of Zambians while recognizing the important role the donor community plays in complementing these initiatives. We shall seek to promote an inclusive government and open our doors to all stakeholders in running the affairs of state. The fight against corruption shall be driven by independent institutions of government in collaboration with an independent judiciary which commands the respect and confidence of our citizens. Social justice shall form the core of the PF government in its domestic and foreign policy. We, therefore, wish to consummate this social contract with you the citizens of Zambia when you turn out in numbers
WISHFULL THINKING AND POLITICAL RHETORIC.
Chimbwi no plan. After pumping money into the shell now you want to give it away. PF is a government of fools by fools indeed. These are not mere u-turns but a stamp of foolishness
Minister, Yaluma. I salute you for now making policy pronouncements as this now gives PF direction in running country affairs, party time is over and bigs up. Thanks for clarifying on RTSA as well. We know that Golden Eagle is behind the stories in New Vision and Daily Nation. Let this jewish company not injure us let them fight Gaza, Syria, Iran etc. We dont want another Nikuv here as we understand they are from the same city.
Enka Rasha #2, you have pointed to a crucial corporate behavioral point there which must actually be noted. I remember when the defunct Zambia Airways tried to use some of Ethiopian Airlines’ approach to doing business it led to heads rolling and censures that were crippling to it as a business entity but profited some other sectors like the oil suppliers and the government itself. In short, we need to allow business to function WITHOUT government fiddling or pushing bogus profiteers in the first place. I wouldn’t be surprised if the next “investor” is already doing backroom deals to be declared fit even when they have no capacity, financial or moral…
Why do we always fail to think beyond our noses.What was the govt’s plan after repossession of RSZ and why don’t they follow it(that is if they had a plan at all).The problem of RSZ is technical and the govt knows that even if an investor was found without govt support that investor like the previous one will fail.Legislation to back and support RSZ has to be in place for it to survive.Can u imagine how profitable RSZ and Tazara would be if all bulk cargo like copper and machinery were being ferried by these railway systems by law.Can u imagine how much business it would be, if all the cars (about 200 per day) that we import thru Dar were handle by Tazara by law and we just collect them at Kapiri .But i am just dreaming because we all know GBM and MMembe have new trucks!!!!
Put some cash from the already issued Bond, ninshi, have you already shared it? I thought I heard that about USD146m of the Bond money was going to be used to revamp the rail service, what has changed now? Mumembe has refused; trying to protect his trucking business? Be serious bwana minister!
If this is not yet another u-turn then I dont know what is! Does anybody remember a certain snake saying it will get rid of all choncholi infesters if voted into power?
What was the reason of fighting for independence?
@Enka Rasha, Ethiopian and Kenya have private investors as shareholders and are listed on Stock Exchanges and run on business principles
Wow, Double U-turn? So there was NO plan, not even short term? Looks like the no-plan policy in PF Govt is here to stay. Just winging it all along.
Mr Yaluma. Investors sought through private partnership with govt were identified and have been in Zambia already. As a pre reqiuisite to agreement by govt, they made a presention of what was to be contained in their investments. Investors have Consultants that have developed most railway systems in Europe and America. They have been on the ground and engaged the Zambian govt, signed memorandum of agreement to conform to govt requirements and were about to carry out feasibility studies from Chililabombwe/ Solwezi all the way to Mulobezi connecting with Namibia and Zimbabwe when elections were held that ushered in PF govt. These were private investors but partners with GRZ under agreement. Investors were from Britain, Saudi Arabia and South Africans.
Those who have been to Britain or South africa will appreciate how railway systeme work and they pledged to build hotels and mini shopping malls and eating places by railway stations. Mr Yaluma may know about this with a briefing from his perm. Sec. on would be railway systems investors. Agreements were signed between Government and these investors that the railway system would be run jointly and left to run privately after a period competency holding in running the congormerate. All what was required was to go through the process of this undertaking by the previous govt and evaluate it if it meets national development interests and make a ministerial statement and make progress. Its disappointing to read Yaluma remarks as if would be investors never existed. Paty politics aside Zambian
Zambians are craving for developments seen in other countries. The partisanship of politics of discrediting everthing the previous govt engaged in with foreign investors sends wrong messages and loss of confidence makes Zambia lose inthe end. My appeal to Mr Yaluma is to revisit thei venture which according to the words of the investors were to make Zambia as a model before they move to Mozambiaque and Angola on the same investments.
With Rail sleepers built in 1888 by Cecil Rhodes, I don’t know any investor who would want to run RSZ. Those sleepers are so corrugated hence the high number of derailements. Also the price of diesel is too high to make any profit from those diesel trains. Electric trains is the only solution. Also movement of bulk materials is a prerequisite. Coal from maamba to the copper mines, copper ores from mines to smelters, timber, car parts for livingstone motor assembly, Maize from different parts of the country, etc. would assist in sustaining RSZ.
CNP clueless!
Electrification of trains moving at normal speed makes sense because we would save a lot of forex by using hydropower which is locally produced and environmentally friendly although it is in short supply at the moment instead of diesel. Even steam engines are better because water and coal which is not environmentally friendly are locally available. I see no reason why Zambia cannot also pollute the environment when RSA produces its 40,000 MW of electricity from coal. Zambia’s installed capacity is about 1800 MW. However fast trains with speeds of 400 km/hr do not come cheap and cannot be economically viable because Zambia has a small population. The example referred to in Japan involves the movement of 24 million passengers per day. There was a documentary on DSTV.
Which ZRL assets? which assets show us? ZRL is just a name as long as there have no proper wharehouses, communication systems, wagons, etc theres is no company to protect here.
PF is running everything with a populist approach. Taking over a company is populist move but financial-wise very stupid if you cant invest. Introducing a fourth mobile company is populist move but very very stupid, especially if you own the third struggling telecom company that it will compete with.
The right description of this PF is that they want to be popular by all means to matter how stupid.
Like I said it is very easy to grab these company for public appeasement BUT you have to have a plan B which should always involve the private sector; they have just realised the true costs of this project….that $120m from the bond is just a drop in the ocean.