NRZ TO HOST REGIONAL RAILWAY CHIEF EXECUTIVES

 The National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) is this week hosting chief executives of railway companies in the Southern Africa region, at the 2018 first board meeting of the Southern Africa Railways Association (SARA).

 

The board meeting will be held in Harare on Wednesday 20 June 2018, at the Monomotapa Crowne Plaza Hotel. The Minister of Transport and Infrastructural Development Dr Joram Gumbo (MP) is expected to officially open the board meeting.

 

NRZ is expected to ascend to the SARA presidency at the board meeting.  Leadership of SARA is based on rotational selection of SARA President and Vice President on yearly basis, based on the criteria set in the SARA Constitution. The NRZ General Manager, Engineer Lewis Mukwada, is expected to be nominated as the SARA president, taking over from Mr Christopher Musonda, the CEO of Zambia Railways Limited.

 

The Zimbabwe rail giant is currently deputizing the incumbent- Zambia Railways Limited. It is also expected that the Beitbridge Bulawayo Railway (BBR) will also ascend into the SARA presidium as deputy president.

 

SARA, which has its headquarters in Harare, has three categories of members of the Association.  The categories are full members who are railways in SADC, associate members who are allied to railway industry and special members who are organizations or groups with vested interest in the railway industry.

 

SARA was formed in April 1996 in line with the SADC Protocol on Transport, Communications and Meteorology (PTCM), Article 13.13 which stipulated the formation of Regional Associations for each transport mode.

 

SARA was originally formed to provide the SADC railways with a strong lobbying platform to advocate for fair surface transport competition by “levelling of the playing field” between road and rail in terms of policy and regulations.

 

SARA’s activities now extend beyond coordination, lobbying and advocacy to initiating and playing a leading role in the implementation of regional projects for the benefit of regional railways.

 

Besides board meetings, SARA members also converge during SARA conferences which offer a mixed package of presentations, exhibitions, gala dinners, golf days and immense opportunities for networking and sharing of ideas. These conferences are held in May every year and the last conference was held in South Africa from 23 to 25 May 2018.