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Oliver Kazunga, Senior Business Reporter
NATIONAL Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) general manager, Ms Respina Zinyanduko, says mindset change and improved work ethic within her organisation is key in turning around the entity. Ms Zinyanduko who is NRZ’s first female general manager in its 124 years of existence, was appointed to the position on 1 December  last year.

A lawyer by profession, Ms Zinyanduko joined NRZ as a board member in July 2020 before she was appointed acting general manager early last year following the death of Mr Joseph Mashika in January.

Almost three months after her substantive appointment to the helm of the parastatal, the NRZ boss said she was instilling a positive work culture, which the giant transporter had lost over the years. Ms Zinyanduko said when she joined NRZ, she realised that workers were spending working hours doing their private businesses in the Central Business District.

“We are now saying any malingering is a punishable offence because we don’t pay you to do your private business during working hours. We have been sending our loss control officers in town looking for NRZ people. The first day they got about 60 people doing their private businesses during working hours,” she said.

Ms Zinyanduko said the second day, they got about 28 but now the problem of malingering has been addressed.

She however said the challenge they were facing now was that of artisans who were selling their tools of the trade to buy beer and then claim that they lost the tools.

Ms Zinyanduko said NRZ deducts money to replace the tools from the employees’ salaries.

She however said it takes long to replace the tools as at times they had to deduct the money for three months to raise adequate amount.

She said this adversely affected operations as some of the artisans could go for three months without adequate tools.

“Going forward we intend to deduct an amount three times more than the cost of the lost tool in order to discourage workers from selling their tools. We do not understand why a worker would sell the tools that he uses at work just to raise money to buy beer,” she said.

The parastatal, which requires US$400 million in the short-term and US$1,9 billion in the long-term, has embarked on a restructuring programme aimed at turning around the organisation.

Recently, Ms Zinyanduko convened a meeting with the company’s management and workers union representatives where she outlined her expectations from them to facilitate the organisation’s turnaround.

It is in this context that the NRZ boss has been attacked on social media by some constituencies within the parastatal that are calling for her dismissal.

“Since I joined the NRZ I realised that the major challenge is poor work culture which is draining a lot of resources from the organisation, both in terms of redundancy and thefts. What we have done is to try to restore a good work culture because culture and attitude is critical. Workers who have have been benefiting from the chaos would obviously resist measures to correct the situation,” she said.

Ms Zinyanduko denied allegations that she read a riot act on NRZ employees following her appointment as the substantive general manager.

“It was not a riot act per se, what I said is what is expected of people who are running a business, remember we are running a business not a charity organisation. After my appointment I had one -on-one meetings with each and every department outlining my expectations so that we can meet our vision,” she said. Ms Zinyanduko said she told the workers that her mission was to turnaround the organisation so that it becomes profitable.

“I told them that we are not going to operate in silo but rather work as a team if we are to achieve the desired objectives,” she said.

She said at management level they had embraced the vision hence the many positives being registered.

Ms Zinyanduko said to motivate the managers, she was buying them vehicles.

“You find that no manager was driving a company vehicle and we are trying to address that so that they can also be able to follow up on business, clients and everything,” she said.

Ms Zinyanduko who also holds an Executive Masters in Business Administration and is in the process of studying for a Doctorate Degree in Business Leadership, has worked for a number of companies in the public sector as well as quasi-Government and private sector.

She worked as a public prosecutor before joining the Grain Marketing Board as assistant administration manager as well as the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority as the administration, legal and corporate services manager.
-@KazungaOliver