By REBECCA MUSHOTA –

THE running of the Tanzania Zambia Railways Authority (TAZARA) will be decentralised by August 1 this year and not that the two countries will split the company as earlier reported, the Tanzanian government has clarified.
Tanzania’s Ministry of Transport permanent secretary Shaaban Mwinjaka said in a statement yesterday that effective August 1, 2014, TAZARA operations will be decentralised as the powers to run the company would be given to the regions (Tanzania and Zambia).
Dr Shaaban said the arrangement would be monitored for a period of six months and reviewed thereafter.
He, however, said some media had misunderstood the announcement made by the Tanzanian Minister of Transport Harrison Mwakyembe at a Press conference on July 14 this year concerning the decentralisation to mean a split of Zambia and Tanzania in the running of the railway company discussed at the Council of Ministers earlier.
The Council of Ministers for TAZARA comprising ministers for Transport, Finance and Commerce from the governments of Tanzania and Zambia held its 60th meeting in Lusaka on July 4, 2014.
Dr Shaaban said the resolutions the Council made were to decentralise the head office as Article 4 Section (iv) of the TAZARA Act No.4 of 1995 provided for that.
In the decentralised arrangement, the regions shall be empowered to be productive and operate more commercially, while the head office shall remain with the role of policy-making, regulation, control and supervision.
“It must be noted that the ownership of TAZARA remains unitary. It must also be noted that the freight trains will continue to run from Dar-es-Salaam to New Kapiri Mposhi, and vice versa, as the case has been in the past,” Dr Shaaban said.
The TAZARA Council also approved the injection of US$80 million into the TAZARA budget for the year 2014/2015 for the purpose of recapitalisation and working capital of which $9.2 million would be released immediately for clearing of workers’ salary arrears, among other commitments.
It also resolved that the process of appointing and confirming officers in higher positions of the company was expected to be concluded in August this year and that the regions would start passenger train services within their regions.
The statement was released by TAZARA head of communications Conrad Simuchile. Meanwhile, TAZARA unionised staff in Kapiri Mposhi went on strike on Tuesday and the company was forced to refund all the passengers that were to travel with the Mukuba Express Train that was scheduled to depart for Dar-es-Salaam at 16:00hrs.
Mr Simuchile confirmed the strike of the workers who were demanding their unpaid salaries.
He said the workers blocked the passenger train from leaving Kapiri Mposhi.
Mr Simuchile said 101 passengers bought tickets worth K20,584.40 of whom 55 were travelling to Tanzania and 46 were traveling within Zambia.
Unionised workers in Mpika two weeks ago also protested against non-payment of salary arrears during which they damaged some company property and forced some travellers to move to another train.