14 Jun 2020

Botswana Railways Chief Executive Officer, Mr Leonard Makwinja says the passenger service train will remain suspended until further notice. 

Addressing media, Mr Makwinja said the passenger train service was suspended as a result of COVID-19 outbreak saying during lockdown Botswana Railways only transported cargo including soda ash, limestone, oil and grain from South Africa to Zimbabwe. 

He indicated that the transportation of cement from PPC in South Africa was also suspended due to the road construction suspension. 

Therefore, he said Botswana Railways suffered over P35million loss of business. 

He also attributed the loss to rail maintenance in South Africa, which caused delay of transporting goods from Mafikeng to Krugersdorp. 

So far, he said the company had spent P2.4m, saying their expenditure would reach P5million by September.

With 756 employees, he said they de-congested staff and initiated staff rotation and retained 30 per cent of their essential employees to work from home. 

He said the rest of the staff were given leaves while training employees and interns were released.

Mr Makwinja further noted that Botswana Railways worked with their South African and Zimbabweans counterparts on monitoring their employees. 

He explained that their strategy included only the train man and the driver transporting goods to both countries, saying upon arrival only the trainman was allowed to leave the train. 

These measures, he said were put in place to curb the spread of the virus. Ends