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NEW National Railways of Zimbabwe board chairman Larry Mavima faces a daunting task of turning around the fortunes of the ailing parastatal which has been tottering on the brink of collapse for the past few years.

An accomplished businessman, Mavima comes in at a time the NRZ is plagued with a plethora of challenges chief among which is the need for urgent recapitalisation to the tune of $400 million. His business acumen will thus be tested by the manner in which he crafts a turnaround strategy and business plan which will be used to negotiate for funding with foreign banks.

His task may sound insurmountable but we believe with the right management team in place, Mavima’s board should be able to chart a new path for the troubled company. Their immediate concern should be finding a new general manager to replace the late Air Commodore Mike Karakadzai. The NRZ, once Bulawayo’s biggest employer with more than 15,000 workers, is now a pale shadow of its former self and currently has about 5,000 employees.

There is general low morale and disgruntlement among NRZ workers who have gone for more than a year without salaries. Retrenchees are also owed their packages while different creditors are owed varying amounts. The company has one of the biggest mechanical workshops in southern Africa but it is heavily underutilised. Its infrastructure is antiquated with rail tracks, signal system and wagons badly in need of revamping.

Despite the obvious challenges, Mavima appeared unfazed by the enormity of the task at hand and exuded confidence as he was introduced to the NRZ hierarchy in Bulawayo last week. “What I’ve seen here clearly shows this is a massive organisation that can be restructured and turned around to play an important role in the economy of the country,” he said as he pledged to work closely with management, employees, all stakeholders, creditors, customers and government in turning around the company.

Mavima, a holder of a Degree in Business Administration and a Masters in Finance from California University in the United States, boasts vast experience in business and corporate administration having worked for top companies in the US after graduation before returning home in the early 1980s. Locally, Mavima has held different managerial posts in different companies.

The Zvishavane-born businessman is one of the brains behind the Brian and Lawrence Company, which championed the flea market concept in the country in the 1990s and also has a stake in Wilderness Safaris which runs lodges in Hwange and Victoria Falls. Transport and Infrastructural Development Minister Joram Gumbo said the NRZ has a lot of potential and capacity to operate profitably but lacked requisite financing.

He said his ministry was already engaged in discussions with potential partners but would not be drawn to disclose further details. “I’ll not tell you who I’m courting but there are about three alternatives we’re pursuing and as we do that we will look for the best partner,” said the minister. We implore the minister to prioritise the revival of the NRZ because it is crucial for the wider turnaround of the national economy.

The NRZ is critical to all sectors of the economy and we expect negotiations for its recapitalisation to proceed with haste now that a new board chairman is in place. We believe the company should target regional traffic to generate business that will support repayment of any loan that will be advanced to it.

We are aware that it has a very narrow customer base due to negative customer perception of its rail service quality and its existence with industry operating at low capacity but all that can be changed through inculcating a culture of good corporate governance and adherence to sound management systems.

The NRZ turnaround strategy should be centred on the need to address the company’s poor infrastructure and equipment where no investment has taken place in the past 25 years in order for it to capture local and regional traffic. NRZ locomotives are aged between 32 years and 50 years, yet their lifespan is 25 years.

The wagons’ age ranges 45 and 60 years while design life is 40 years. This is clearly unsustainable. Mavima should hit the ground running and work with his management team to find ways of extricating the company from its sorry state.

We are glad that the new board chairman has a clear vision for the company, something that should instill confidence in his management. “I’m not a railway man but a businessman. NRZ is a massive organisation and it’s sad to see it in this state. It has the largest workshop south of the Sahara. This gives one the drive to work. We need to fix the economy and have this entity running”, Mavima said in an article elsewhere on these pages.