Southern African Changes Peril Railway

Time and neglect have faded the portraits of Julius Nyerere of Tanzania and Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia that decorate stations along the 1,160-mile railway linking the former presidents’ two nations.

History too now threatens to catch up with the Tanzania- Zambia Railway (Tazara), which has operated for 15 years as part of a grand scheme to provide landlocked states with a secure trade route other than through South Africa.

“With the end of apartheid and the opening up of South Africa and moves toward peace in Angola and Mozambique, it (Tazara) is going to face a lot of competition for freight,” said a Tanzania-based aid official.

Rivals include South African routes, the Beira railway in Mozambique, Angola’s Benguela railway, which is privately owned by Belgian conglomerate Societe Generale, and truck companies throughout the region.

Civil wars in Angola and Mozambique have reduced traffic on the Benguela and Beira lines to a trickle since 1975, and trade with South Africa suffered because of objections to white rule.

Foreign donors have given $170 million to a 10-year investment program, launched in 1984, to modernize the Chinese-built Tazara, but they say they will withhold up to $130 million more if it does not become commercially viable.

Although Western donors later became the line’s principal supporters, they were originally opposed to financing it.

China’s leader Mao Tse-tung saw the political significance of the project and so the line was built, at a cost of $500 million, by 25,000 Chinese laborers.

The recent election victory of Zambian President Frederick Chiluba over Kaunda may lead to a shake-up of management.

“We used to be the in thing when it was government policy to use Tazara, but now the international community says the scenario has changed,” said Tazara general manager Joseph Mayovu.

According to Tazara figures, the line between the deep-water port of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania and Kapiri Mposhi in central Zambia transported 1.1 million metric tons of freight and 1.8 million passengers in 1990-91--well below its capacity.

If metal exports from Zambia and Zaire remain at constant levels, future expansion of freight volumes will depend on the recovery of the region’s impoverished economies in the 1990s, diplomats say.

Passenger trains are uncomfortable but punctual. The Tanzania-Zambia frontier is described by one traveler’s guide as one of the most notorious in Africa, characterized by rampant extortion of fines and bribes.

The freight target for 1991-92 is 1.22 million metric tons, but, because of anti-government unrest in Zaire, Tazara officials admit that the target will be hard to reach.

Diplomats say Tazara’s officially swift transit times are unreliable and freight tariffs, although negotiable and currently cheaper than other railway routes, could still be undercut by trucking companies.

A five-year plan to upgrade the country’s road network is due for completion in 1993 and availability of fuel and spare parts since Tanzania freed up trade in the late 1980s has already boosted trucking businesses.

But a more pressing problem is the need to restructure Tazara’s management and staff, donors say.

“They could sack about half of their 6,000 staff,” said one senior Western diplomat.