Tazara authority chief eyes enhancing Tanzania-Zambia railway operations

The newly appointed Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority (TAZARA) CEO has called on workers of the railway firm to be customer-centric in order to turn the authority into the best transport organization in the region, a TAZARA statement said on Wednesday.

Bruno Ching'andu, TAZARA Managing Director, met over 500 Dar es Salaam-based TAZARA employees and told them that he wanted to preside over a workforce that was proud to work for TAZARA, paid handsomely and competitively and operating in a safe environment, with plenty of opportunities to learn and grow.

"I dream of a TAZARA whose workers are proud and happy to be working for this company," said Ching'andu.

"I want us to be customer-centric, giving maximum respect to our clients and contributing to the growth of the economies of Tanzania and Zambia by paying taxes and dividends to the shareholders," he added.

He challenged the workers to work as a unified team with one common goal in order to eliminate the divisive tendencies that pulled the authority backwards.

He said he left a well-paying job in South Africa to join TAZARA because he knew it was possible to turn around the authority and begin to earn sustainable revenue, enough to pay employees' salaries, taxes and dividends to the shareholders.

"This company has everything it needs to make money. The Chinese came, built the infrastructure and handed it over to us to manage," said Ching'andu.

"They (the Chinese) gave us fishing rods and taught us how to fish, but immediately after they left, we went back to sleep, threw away the fishing rods and started to beg for fish," he said.

Ching'andu is in his second month at the helm of TAZARA, having taken up the position as the authority's CEO in April 2016.

Last week, TAZARA and the National Railways Company of Democratic Republic of Congo agreed to aggressively market their services to increase the volume of freight between the port of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania and the DRC.

TAZARA hit its lowest ebb in the 2014/15 financial year when only about 88,000 metric tons of freight were transported, the lowest figure recorded since 1976 when TAZARA operations officially began.

Aged between 25-30 years, most mainline locomotives that are currently in operation have outlived their life spans and are frequently breaking down, a situation that has been exacerbated by the authority's failure to adhere to maintenance schedules due to liquidity challenges.

Over the years, the passenger service operational levels had also dropped to the very minimum, where barely 455,000 passengers were transported in the 2014/2015 financial year, compared to ten years ago when the authority used to convey more than 900,000 passengers annually.

TAZARA was constructed as a turnkey project between 1970 and 1975 through an interest-free loan of 500 million US dollars from China, with commercial operations starting in July 1976, covering 1,860 kilometres from Dar es Salaam in Tanzania to New Kapiri Mposhi in Zambia. Endit