Tazara now advises governments to disburse USD 80 million for operations

ADAMANT: Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority (Tazara) workers, who are on indefinite strike demanding payment of six-month salary arrears, as found at Tazara headquarters in Dar es Salaam yesterday.

Tanzania and Zambia Railway Authority (TAZARA) management has urged both governments of Tanzania and Zambia to disburse the agreed USD 80 million as the company’s running capital in order to end frequent workers strikes.

 

TAZARA Head of Public Relations, Conrad Simuchile told The Guardian yesterday in Dar es Salaam that the strike follows failure by the two countries to release the funds.

 

According to Simuchile,TAZARA  has been running at  loss for ten years from 2004. He said the financial situation worsened from April last year.

 

“Officials from both countries met in July last year and agreed to inject the monies, but only USD 25 million has so far been injected,” said Simuchile.

 

He explained that the company required USD 1.3 million to pay salaries to more than 1500 employees.

 

In January 13 this year, TAZARA was grounded following the decision by the workers to go on strike as many times as possible.

In the same vein, TANZANIA-Zambia Railway Authority (TAZARA) has announced the suspension of passenger train services between Tanzania and Zambia because of operational costs. 

 

A press statement from Tazara management made available on Monday said that there will be no train services from Dar es Salaam and New Kapiri Mposhi for the whole week until further notice. 

 

 According to TAZARA, the authority has been unable to meet most operational costs, the bulk of which include expenses for purchasing spare parts  for locomotives and rolling stock, fuel and salaries for employees. 

 

“As a result of the longstanding operational challenges that have been facing the Authority, TAZARA has been operating at a loss for more than ten years now, losses have now reached a crisis level,” reads the statement in part.

 

It said that in the last few months, the management had appealed to the employees to exercise further patience whilst long-term sustainable solutions were being sought in conjunction with the shareholders in order to end the perennial operational challenges.

 

The statement said  on Monday, the employees in both regions of Tanzania and Zambia had communicated to the Authority saying that they would no longer wait for the promises made and opted to down tools to press for the immediate payment of the unpaid salaries covering the last five months.

 

However, TAZARA has since requested the two shareholders to provide further guidance on the matter.

 

According to TAZARA, it had instructed all stations to refund intending passengers who were booked to travel on the passenger trains this week.