TAZARA DG: Revenues channeled to salaries, fuel

   Tanzania Zambia Railway Authority (TAZARA) has said that its management is concerned, committed and active towards addressing plights of employees, obstacles to the authority’s operations in serving its customers.

Tazara Managing Director, Akashambatwa Mbikusita-Lewanika said in a press statement that the company is still challenged with meeting the operational expenditures including payments for fuel and salaries, noting that it should be recognized that train movements challenges are caused by deficiencies in the maintenance of locomotives, wagons and other essential plant and machinery items.

His statement comes following media reports that some authority’s workers have claimed that there are no cargo trains moving on Tazara railway and that payment of salaries has been delayed arising from poor planning.

Tazara boss assured his workers that a lot was being done to address both the immediate manifestations of the problems as well as the fundamental causal factors, in efforts whose fruits shall begin to be seen soon, with the support and cooperation of all employees and the sanction of the next sitting of the Board of Directors, which is anticipated in the next few weeks.

He said that this includes efforts towards moving the traffic that is on hand and bringing back the freight that is being moved by road through more adequate and better applied working capital provisions and efforts to engage with local and foreign private sectors including sate regional bodies in sourcing finance.

However he added that right now efforts were being put in place for the delivery of over 76 wagons that are running with nearly 4,000 metric tones of fertilizer which is awaited in Zambia but also pushing for a further 2,000 metric tones to have its documentation and clearance requirements completed so that it too may be dispatched from Dar es Salaam to Zambia.

On salaries, Mbikusita-Lewanika said that all revenues being received were being directed towards payments of salaries and fuel, and as a result workers in both Tanzania and Zambia have begun receiving their salaries as from October this year