MoU between govt and AYR is meaningless, says Kavindele

MoU between govt and AYR is meaningless, says Kavindele
By Mutuna Chanda in Kitwe and Abigail Chaponda in Ndola
Sunday September 07, 2008 [04:00]

NORTH Western Railway (NWR) chairman Enoch Kavindele has described as meaningless the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that government signed with China’s AYR Group on the proposed construction of a railway line.

On Friday, transport minister Dora Siliya on behalf of the government and China’s AYR Group, and China Railways Limited representative Ron Forlee signed the MoU on the proposed construction of the railway line from Chingola in Zambia through Lumwana to Jimbe in Angola.

But Kavindele said the MoU was meaningless, as his company had already signed a similar one with the government.

“We also signed a similar MoU and it was based on that, that we were given a railway permit which government cancelled arbitrarily,” Kavindele said.

Kavindele said he did not understand what was currently going on as the matter in which the government cancelled NWR’s permit was currently in court.

“The minister is fully aware of the matter being in court,” Kavindele said. “We ourselves are talking with China Rail in Beijing and we signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the general manager of the company, so we are dealing with the top people.”

He said NWR had been to court four times during which the government had not been ready to proceed with the case and that the matter was waiting for the court’s final determination.

Siliya told journalists on Friday in Ndola that there was poor planning by the government when constructing the railway system.

She said the government needed to improve the railway system as soon as possible.
Siliya said there was no need to blame anyone on the bad performance of the railway system.

“We need to work together if we want our railway line to improve, this should not be left to government alone. On the other hand, government should realise that they did not plan well when it comes to the construction of railway lines,” she said.

“Government may have gone to sleep about this important issue but it’s time to wake up because railway system is important. But if we want this to work, the private sector should also come because not all the money is going to come from government.

“We have seen how roads are being abused. We will have a lot of problems when mine companies like Lumwana start operating at full capacity. Our only hope to survive this is to improve our railway system.”

Siliya said she would persuade Ministry of Works and Supply to introduce toll gates.
China railway international said they were happy to work with the Zambian government.