By Isaac Zulu
The Crew and Allied workers president Bevis Silumbe has castigated the acting permanent secretary in the Ministry of Transport, saying his hostility has resulted in the accumulation of Salary arrears resulting in TAZARA workers going for four months without pay.
Speaking with Daily Revelation, Silumbe charged that there has been some inertia at the ministry of transport to address the challenges facing TAZARA.
“What we are seeing is a very big challenge at the ministry of transport. We saw that challenge when we met the PS where the environment was hostile. That hostility was coming from one director of planning by the name of Mr Mbewe, who indicated that we are frustrating efforts by the government to resolve issues at TAZARA. And that led to the disruption of the meeting without tangible outcomes. And we have seen that the disruption of that meeting has now led to accumulation of salary arrears,” said Silumbe. “In a nutshell, government is willing to help us, but that commitment cannot just be by word of mouth. The commitment must
be felt by TAZARA workers. So we are meeting them on Thursday regarding the same. And if the meeting doesn’t come up with resolutions, we will seek to meet the Head of State so that we know what plans government has for TAZARA.”
Silumbe described the situation where TAZARA workers have been going without salaries as unacceptable and pathetic.
“The request we made to pay for two months has not been attended to. The situation is quite pathetic and needs government intervention, and not someone proclaiming this and that. We need actions because we cannot eat proclamations or assurances. Workers are suffering,” stated Silumbe.
He said that the willingness to engage in dialogue with officials at the ministry of transport is shrinking, emphasising that the union leaders at TAZARA would seek audience with President Hakainde Hichilema.
“We have a challenge with ministry of transport at PS level. The willingness to engage in dialogue seems to be shrinking. We had a successful meeting with the minister, although the acting PS then, Mr Mbewe, wanted to sabotage the meeting; but the minister made sure that he gives us chance to explain our part. As we speak, the office of the PS has not gotten a clear understanding of the submissions from the unions because of one director, who is a frustrated person because he was acting PS and thought that he would be confirmed in that position,” said Silumbe. “He is the I know it all kind of guy. He was at the ministry of transport even during the tenure of the PF government, but they did nothing to resolve challenges at TAZARA. If the Thursday meeting doesn’t go well, we will ask the office of the secretary general at ZCTU to write to the Head of State to seek audience with him.”
Silumbe said the situation of workers going for months without pay has been compounded by the collapse of the Chambeshi bridge, which has resulted in the rail company failing to haul cargo between Kapiri Mposhi and Dar-es-Salaam.
He explained that even if the Chambeshi bridge is repaired and traffic volumes normalise, TAZARA workers might still go without salaries because the rail firm cannot start generating revenue immediately.
“It is true that TAZARA workers have gone for four months without salaries. And we have engaged government on the same issue. These four months salary arrears have been anticipated. And we anticipate to go for more months without pay. As you are aware, the Chambeshi bridge collapsed last year and the repair period has been estimated to be four months. This simply means that there will be no money to pay salaries. And after that bridge is repaired, you do not expect operations to commence and traffic volumes pick to the required levels. We will need another four months recovery period,” explained Silumbe. “Even when traffic volumes normalise, you don’t get revenue there and then. So our projection is that the whole of this year TAZARA won’t have the capacity to pay salaries. Now we have engaged government on these matters. The first meeting we had was with the minister, who assured us that government will take care of the challenge of the collapsed bridge and that workers will not go without salaries.”
Silumbe stated that it is government’s responsibility to pay salaries to TAZARA workers.
“We have seen government releasing funds for the repairing of the Chambeshi bridge, which we appreciate. We have seen government releasing money for last year’s salary arrears. We were in four months arrears and government paid for three months. So what we expect is that as government takes care of the challenge of the Chambeshi bridge, it should also take care of paying workers’ salaries until TAZARA is self sustainable,” said Silumbe.
