The Sunday News
THE biggest mistake that many parastatals made over the years was getting so relaxed in their self-made feel-good factor because Government has tried by all means to protect them by making services they offer a monopoly. Under the blanket of monopoly most of these companies have watched as their services went down but since they were protected they could not foresee any danger.
They remained under this self-delusional mode bragging since anyone who still wanted their services had no alternative but was forced to make do with their shoddy business.
At the same time, most of these companies simply forgot that they were formed to generate money for Government.
They turned into companies so poorly managed and just waiting for Government to come with bucketfuls of money to rescue them.
Instead of telling the nation about their business, about their turnaround strategies, it became a common hymn where heads of these companies were telling everyone who cared to listen about how they were looking forward to Government to bail them out.
Each year, they would wait for the national budget to see how much was coming their way from Treasury.
The results of this monopoly are all clear for everyone to see today.
Most of these parastatals are on their knees, literally being kept afloat by occasional sales of scrap material.
One such company, once the envy of everyone, once the biggest employer in Bulawayo and among the biggest in the country is the National Railways of Zimbabwe.
NRZ is facing many challenges and as if that is not enough they are mounting.
It is one company where the issue of workers’ salaries not being paid no longer jolts management. Even the workers have been forced to accept this unfortunate scenario, painful as it maybe, it now sounds as if it is normal.
I do not remember when the workers last received their full salaries on time.
At the moment reports say the company is paying bits and pieces and is in huge arrears.
The effect is huge, from dwindling pension contributions and payouts to workers failing to meet their family needs and on a national scale dwindling of tax being collected by the Government.
Most of NRZ’s locomotives are piling up at its workshops in Bulawayo, with few still on the rail.
A visit to the company’s main workshop in Bulawayo reveals a sorry state.
Some of the wagons and locomotives do not look like they will ever be back onto the rails again.
In fact, there is a need to create a whole new industry to dispose of all the equipment that has been piling up at NRZ.
A number of scholars have cited the company in a number of disciplines especially with a bias towards researches on collapsing companies in Zimbabwe.
It is one of the companies that suffered from sanctions yes, but some of the rot at the company surely goes beyond this thinking.
This is a company that has just turned into a laughing stock of industry.
However, something that has happened in the rail sector must be enough to push everyone involved in the future of the company to wake up and realise that this monopolistic approach will not take us anywhere.
A small player in the rail sector — Bulawayo-Beitrbridge Railway — which used to run the more than 300-kilometre stretch between Beitbridge and Bulawayo, was almost in the same boat as NRZ.
Obviously, with some NRZ shareholding it was doomed to sink as well. But management and shareholders discovered just sitting and wait for shareholders like NRZ to inject capital was futile.
They took a giant step by disposing the company to South African engineering giant Grindrod Limited.
The South African company has now brought in a lot of equipment to maintain the railway line and latest locomotives that are now railing large quantities of goods between Bulawayo and Beitbridge.
The company immediately poured in $2 million for refurbishment of locomotives in Bulawayo in addition to introducing the latest communication system that uses satellite technology.
All of a sudden to those who have noticed, the line is busy but not from NRZ locomotives and wagons but red locomotives owned by Grindrod.
Along the rail, the company has stationed equipment that they are using to maintain the line.
It’s just a marvel to watch those wagons crossing the country again.
The BBR-Grindrod project is small considering the potential of NRZ but must serve as a reminder to the parastatal on what it needs to do to revive its waning business.
If NRZ fears to lose everything to private players it can at least parcel out some of its business to the private sector.
NRZ has grown to become an all-encompassing company in the rail industry — wagons, locomotives, refurbishment of tracks and signals.
It can at least offer private companies some of the business and still remain a big player.
Does NRZ think that all of a sudden it will go down if it asks Grindrod, which has already started refurbishing locomotives and installing them with the latest communication devices, to refurbish some of its equipment while it concentrates on other business?
It cannot be busy looking for money to do everything.
Government and the company do not have money so no matter how much we love these companies it is useless to hold on to them while they continue sliding.
There is a need to take a bold decision and bring in private players with the capital and expertise to put back NRZ on the rail.
The BBR project must serve as a reminder that sometimes we need, as a country, to take a bold decision in order to revive some of the companies and parastatals.
Companies right now need huge capital injections and under the prevailing conditions, few can afford to raise that money on their own.
The only way out is to invite those with the money to help.
Feedback
I think it was not advisable to increase toll fees. From the onset, the road project programme, we believe was a well-planned thing. It is, however, showing loopholes on its progress. Which road has been developed, only one but still not good enough or up to standard as a highway. So that means by the time we develop our roads to e-tolls no one will afford to pay toll fees. — +27718447883.
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