|
BBR Chief elected to top regional post
The Chief Executive of the Beitbridge Bulawayo
Railway (BBR) Limited, Mr Eitan Dvir, has been
inaugurated as President of the Southern African
Railways Association (SARA). Dvir took up the
post during the Southern African Railways Association
Board Meeting held in Maputo Mozambique on 29
May 2002.
The meeting attended by the SADC railways Chief
Executive Officers, was held four days after
the Mozambique rail accident disaster in which
about two hundred passengers were killed and
another large number injured.. The rail officials
took the opportunity to attend a memorial service
held in Maputo for the victims of the accident.
SARA is an Association of SADC
railways, which was formed in April 1996 to
develop, promote and evaluate railway operational
standards in the region. SARA also seeks to
promote the railway industry through a sustained
lobby for fair transport competition between
road and rail as a collective mouthpiece for
the industry. Membership of SARA comprises fourteen
railways in Angola, Botswana, D R Congo, Malawi,
Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland,
Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Dvir becomes the first Chief
Executive of a privately owned railway to assume
this level of responsibility. Dvir took over
from Gideon Mahlalela, Chief Executive of Swaziland
Railway, who stepped down at the end of May
2002. Dvir is deputized by Eng. Rui Fonseca,
the Executive Chairman of the Board of Mozambique
Ports and Railways. Fonseca is poised to take
over the Presidency in May 2003.
There are expectations that
the election of the BBR Chief could usher a
new culture of efficiency and market driven
approaches to the running and co-ordination
of international railway transport business,
whose members are striving to create a seamless
railway transport service across national boundaries.
There can be no doubt as regards the challenges
facing the new SARA President, which among others
include convincing the clients that the railways
can perform against a backdrop of a decline
in rail market share, courtesy of the road sector.
Dvir told his colleagues at the Maputo meeting
that it was indeed an honour and a demonstration
of confidence in him and his railway, to be
accorded the opportunity to guide the regional
association within the spirit of collective
responsibility and regional cooperation. The
Southern African Railways Association has its
Secretariat based in Harare, Zimbabwe, and is
headed by its Executive Director, Eng. Remmy
Makumbe
|
