Press Releases

13 November 2002

PRESS STATEMENT

The Southern African Railways Association (SARA) held its 15 th Board Meeting at the Harare International Conference Centre on 13 November 2002. The Board Meeting was attended by the Chief Executives of the Railways from Angola, Mozambique, DR Congo, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Zambia, Swaziland and South Africa. The meeting was officially opened by the Minister of Transport and Communications, the Honourable Dr Witness Mangwende.

The Minister's speech is attached for ease of reference. The meeting was chaired by the SARA President and Chief Executive of BBR, Mr Eitan Dvir. The purpose of the meeting was to accord the SADC railway chiefs an opportunity to review the performance of the railways in the SADC region with specific emphasis on freight trains transit times, corridor turn around times, ability of railway to meet customer targets on delivery to ports and inland destination, level of performance with grain movement in the SADC region and other areas of regional cooperation. In this respect, the meeting noted and concluded the following:

1. That the Association should strengthen its cooperation with all key players like World food Programme, SADC, shippers and ports to promote expeditious delivery of drought relief grain to all the needy countries.
2. That the SADC railways continue to promote sharing of resources especially in respect of locomotives, wagons and other equipment.
3. That the various railways and corridors formulate strategies to improve rail traffic transit times to reduce costs, improve customer satisfaction and ultimately maximise rail market share against road transport.
4. That SARA reinforce efforts to formulate and implement strategies aimed at reducing the rate of HIV/AIDS infection amongst the railways in the SADC region
5. That SARA and SADC railways cooperate and consult with the Angola Government in order to assist with the rehabilitation of the railways in that country as a form of regional cooperation.
6. That SARA continue to agitate for funding for the rehabilitation of railways in Angola and staff training amongst financiers and cooperating partners to bring them to the same level of infrastructure with the rest of the SADC railways.
7. That SARA continue to undertake training for the employees of the various railways in the region with special emphasis on corridor operations.

The next SARA board Meeting shall be held in May 2003, in order to review further, progress made on the foregoing regional railway issues.

Eng. Remmy MAKUMBE
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR