Botswana rail under pressure

The imposition by the National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) of tariff charges of up to 300 percent per metric tonne on cargo to and from Botswana might lose the Botswana Railways (BR) up to US $3.5 million in revenue this financial year, BR source told IRIN on Thursday. The BR source said: "For the past two months, the NRZ crew at the Plumtree border post have been prioritising cargo of the new Beit Bridge-Bulawayo Railway (BBR) at the expense of our own cargo while at the same time rail traffic has been deliberately diverted away from BR to BBR." The source added that the deliberate slow pace in offloading BR's cargo is costing the parastatal about US $10.000 a day, which could eventually amount to losses in revenue of up to US $3.5 million for the 1999/2000 financial year if the situation is not improved. Botswana's rail company has been the carrier of goods headed north or coming from that direction destined for South Africa, before the new BBR line was commissioned in July. It operates from Beit Bridge to Bulawayo. The new line, according to its operators, BBR Limited, has cut the distance between Beit Bridge and Bulawayo by more than 200 kms and has made rail access to and from South Africa quicker and more efficient. This has, however, undercut Botswana's share of the rail business by up to half, said the BR source, who added that meetings between the representatives of the two governments are continuing on resolving the situation. "The BR is exploring survival mechanisms for the rail company and will advise our government accordingly," said the BR source. Meanwhile, an NRZ official told IRIN there was no deliberate plan to undercut BR's rail cargo: "The NRZ, BBR and BR all accepted an agreement on the implementation of the shortest route principle between the three rail administrations, although it now seems Botswana has now reneged on the agreement."