THE rapid decline of Zimbabwe’s economy, from a southern African powerhouse 23 years ago, is partly attributable to the destruction of a vital pillar of the country’s logistics system — National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ).
NRZ has been mercilessly stripped off and left to collapse by the usual suspects — looting politicians in government and other strategic institutions.
As Kenias Mafukidze, group chief executive officer at Alpha Media Holdings, points out elsewhere in this edition, fixing the mess at NRZ should not be an afterthought.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa must take this advice, which is not really new, seriously. Shipping cargo over long distances as Zimbabwean firms and state agencies do, requires rail transport, which is safe, faster and cheaper. A bleeding landlocked country, which is battling some of the region’s most brutal doing business costs, must explore how it can trim overheads to build a hospitable business climate.
It is within Zimbabwe’s capacity to deal with the NRZ’s troubles effectively and save thousands of businesses that have had to transport equipment, raw materials and finished goods over road and expensive air services. This will be a much smaller task than efforts invested into overhauling major roads.
But the problem is, companies like NRZ have been feeding troughs for politically connected looters for 43 years.
They will fight and fend off any attempts to bring sanity to the troubled firm, and maintain the chaos, in order to continue looting.
And if Mnangagwa is not careful, they will continue feeding him with sugar-coated and high sounding piles of research papers to delay the revival of NRZ at all costs.
During that time, they, together with their cronies, will be benefitting from what is typically a national tragedy.
This is possibly why NRZ’s privatisation, on the card for decades, has flopped. It is not only NRZ that requires urgent attention - chaos is wreaking havoc across all state firms numbering over 100.
There is little or no attention being made to redevelop and place them at the heart of economic recovery.
From this perspective, Mnangagwa should simply forget about his hyped Vision 2030. When a consortium of Zimbabweans raised US$400 million for NRZ about six years ago, complications soon cropped up, leading to the collapse of the deal.
Today, NRZ remains in doldrums, and the economy continues to suffer.At its peak, in the 1990s, NRZ moved 18 million tonnes of cargo per year.It was a major economic employer with 600 locomotives and 3 000 passenger carriages. But from 2000, it took a downward spiral, reverting to steam engines and discontinuing some services.
“I would advise you to go and sleep and think about a legacy project that you make sure of,” Mafukidze said.
“Look at Malaysia’s Petronas Towers. They built it for nothing other than legacy, making a dent on history.”
Mr President, the next five years will be critical.
You must either make tough and bold decisions quickly, or drive Zimbabwe further down the swamps.