CHENGETAI MURIMWA IN BULAWAYO
The National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) has appointed Tongoona Chitando as acting general manager (GM) following the recent death of Joseph Mashika.
Chitando will double up as the acting chief finance officer.
His appointment comes after the NRZ board indefinitely suspended its proposed ‘crisis’ meeting to deal with appointment of a new GM and a dip in freight volume.
NRZ spokesperson, Nyasha Maravanyika confirmed Chitando’s appointment.
“Chitando has been steering the ship since the death of our acting GM and the weekend meeting which was supposed to appoint the person who will in the meantime run the parastatal has been suspended indefinitely,” Maravanyika told Business Time on Tuesday this week.
He said the proposed board meeting failed to take place at the weekend due to the death of the Transport and Infrastructural Development Minister Joel Biggie Matiza last Friday.
Matiza was buried yesterday at the National Heroes Acre.The proposed meeting was supposed to map the way forward in terms of restructuring the parastatal following the death of Mashika who passed on January 17.
An NRZ board member, Mashika was appointed as acting GM in August last year following the retirement of Lewis Mukwada.
Chitando faces a daunting task of trying to turn the parastatal’s fortunes around following a dip in volumes.
In 2019, NRZ reported 2.8m tonnes and then dropped to 2.5m tonnes in 2020. The dip is largely premised on the issue of the Covid-19 pandemic. ff
