Tanzania: Tazara Takeover Plan Queried

By Musita John and Louis Columbia

Dar es Salaam — The Tanzania Railway Workers Union (Trawu) said yesterday it will only agree to a privatisation plan of the Tanzania-Zambia Railway (Tazara) unless it is becomes part of the team working on the plan.

Their reaction comes just two day after The Citizen revealed that there were ongoing discussions to have China take over the management of Tazara in a major privitasation plan that will involve the laying off of some workers.

Trawu has written to the Works permanent secretary and the Tazara managing director to seek clarification on what has transpired.

Trawu secretary-general Boaz Nyakeke told The Citizen that it was unfortunate that workers' opinions have not been taken into consideration. "It is unfortunate that we hear the privatisation plan in the media. It is discouraging to see workers' interests being ignored in favour of an investor," he said.

He said the trade union was not opposed to the takeover, but would have liked to be involved from the beginning to avoid inconveniences in the future.

"Tazara has qualified and long experienced staff to run it profitably. Our government has for years not shown interest in supporting us, but surprisingly the investor is allowed to do what they have asked for," he said. "This is just a game. Our government usually ignores views of local experts. But you can see what happened to Tanzania Railways Ltd. We advised the government that Indians were not going to make it and it happened," Mr Nyakeke said.

He explained that if the government insisted on privatisation without their involvement, they would take the matter to the Trawu general assembly for further action. He said retrenchment was accepted only when parties sat together and agreed on key issues.

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