Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0423/04232.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 41KB | 612 lines

$Unique_ID{COW04232}
$Pretitle{371}
$Title{Zimbabwe
Chapter 3D.   Transportation}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Donald P. Whitaker}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{percent
african
africa
south
year
wage
taxes
government
income
total}
$Date{1982}
$Log{}
Country:     Zimbabwe
Book:        Zimbabwe, A Country Study
Author:      Donald P. Whitaker
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1982

Chapter 3D.   Transportation

     Zimbabwe's transport facilities-rail, road, and air-are well developed.
In 1982 they were generally adequate but in some need of rehabilitation and
strengthening. Rail, air, and the better roads served primarily the modern
commercial sector, the outcome fundamentally of development that was based
almost entirely on economic factors (see fig. 16). A new attitude toward road
construction, the transport mode in which significant change is possible, has
developed since independence, in which the social requirements of the largely
subsistence communal areas have been given consideration along with the
economic aspects. The country's railroads have been a vital transit link in
the movement of trade in southern Africa especially for Zambia and the
southern mining region of Zaire. Zimbabwean lines to Mozambique also have
offered the independent black states of southern Africa the means for reduced
dependence on the transport facilities of white-ruled South Africa.

Railroads

     Rail lines cover most parts of the country, the major exception being a
large region made up almost entirely of African communal lands south of Lake
Kariba. The main internal line runs through the highveld from Bulawayo to
Harare. Branches and spurs extend from the main line to important economic
centers and areas. This core network also connects with the rail system of
South Africa directly through Beitbridge and indirectly via Botswana, with the
rail system of Zambia (at Victoria Falls), and with lines in Mozambique that
run to the ports of Maputo and Beira. Operated by an autonomous state
corporation, National Railways of Zimbabwe-NRZ (formerly the state-owned
Rhodesia Railways), the system in 1982 consisted of 2,734 route kilometers of
1,067-meter-gauge track, a width originally established for the South African
railroads and common to the railroads of all southern Africa. With the
exception of short trackage in the vicinities of Bulawayo and Harare, all
lines were single track. NRZ also owned and operated the line from the
Zimbabwean border through Botswana to a connection with South African Railways
near Mafeking. Botswana since the mid-1970s has planned to take over this
line, 640 kilometers in length, but it appeared that final acquisition might
not occur until after the mid-1980s.

     Zimbabwe's railroads originated essentially as part of Cecil Rhodes'
grand plan for opening up the interior of Africa for development in which
railroads, culminating eventually in a Cape-to-Cairo line, were a major
element. In the early 1890s, however, the immediate need was to provide the
settlers in the territory of the BSAC with more reliable means of transporting
goods and supplies than was provided by oxcarts (see Rhodes and the British
South Africa Company, ch. 1). Construction of two lines to the territory, both
backed by Rhodes, was started in the early part of the decade: one in 1892
from the Mozambique coast near present-day Beira, the other in 1894 from
Mafeking in South Africa. In 1898 the former reached Umtali; from there it was
extended to Salisbury in 1899; the latter advanced to Bulawayo in 1897. In
1902 Bulawayo and Salisbury were connected, and in 1903-1904 a line was pushed
to the Zambian border, passing through the Wankie coalfields where coal mining
had started in 1903. Many of the system's spurs and small branches were
completed during the next two decades. The two most significant additions
thereafter were the completion in 1955 of the connection with the Mozambican
railroad to Maputo and in 1974 the direct connection with the South African
system at Beitbridge. Beginning in the late 1960s domestic sentiment had grown
for construction of the latter line because of uncertainties concerning the
route through Botswana. It was not until 1974, however, when the revolution in
Portugal opened the possibility of a takeover in Mozambique by a government
hostile to Rhodesia-thereby threatening the outlets through Beira and
Maputo-that the link was built as a security measure.

     NRZ suffered little direct physical damage from the guerrilla war. Tracks
continued to be well maintained, but shortages of spare parts and particularly
of trained personnel had resulted in a considerable number of locomotives
being out of service. This situation continued after independence, and in
mid-1981 less than half of the 255 effective diesel locomotives and under
fifty of eighty steam engines were reported operational. In early 1981 there
was a reported shortage of about 20 percent of the required highly skilled
staff, and the total had risen to some 30 percent late in the year. Facilities
existed for training Zimbabweans at lower level skills for railroad vacancies
and such training was under way, but domestic facilities were inadequate to
turn out the needed technical staff. Additional expatriate personnel had to be
used and were recruited mainly from India and Pakistan. In early 1981 IBRD
approved a loan equivalent to US$42 million to aid the transport sector. This
included spare parts for locomotives and freight cars, machine tools, track
equipment, and apparatus to maintain and improve the signaling system. The
government also ordered sixty-one new diesel-electric locomotives during the
year from the United States and Canada; thirty-five had been delivered by
mid-1982, and the others were to arrive in August.

     In the 1970s about three-fifths of the 12 to 13 million tons of freight
hauled annually by the railroad was for domestic use. A substantial portion of
this local movement consisted of bulk goods, including agricultural products,
coal, fertilizer, and iron ore. The export-import trade accounted for another
third, largely comprising exports of cotton, maize, sugar, minerals, and steel
and imports of general goods, fuels, and chemicals. Transit shipments of
copper from Zambia and Zaire made up most of the remaining tonnage carried.
After early 1976 when the lines to Beira and Maputo were closed by the
independent government in Mozambique, all export, import, and transit traffic
had to pass through South Africa. This changed in late 1980 when the route to
Maputo was reopened after repairs; the line to Beira was reopened a year
later. In late 1981 the minister of transport stated that the railroad had
hauled some 13 million tons in the year ending June 30 but that the demand for
rail transport was estimated at about 16 million tons. The new locomotives,
the new expatriate staff, the addition of over twenty locomotives overhauled
domestically for operational use, and the freeing of transport by the opening
of the pipeline helped greatly to alleviate the situation. The new equipment
was also expected to permit the return to South Africa of a number of
locomotives on loan from that country.

     In late 1981 NRZ began the long-contemplated (since the late 1950s)
electrification of the railroad system. The first phase, involving the line
from Harare to Gweru, included electrification of about 325 kilometers of
mainline track and some 120 kilometers of yard, siding, and station trackage.
Assistance in the initial project has been received from Britain in the form
of a loan and the guarantee of commercial credits. Thirty electric locomotives
had been ordered for the Harare-Gweru section for delivery in 1983.

Roads

     In 1982 Zimbabwe's road network totaled roughly 85,000 kilometers. About
12,000 kilometers (or approximately 14 percent) were asphalt paved. Of these
roads about 8,000 kilometers were two-lane highways, and the remainder were
one-lane roads. Another 46,000 kilometers (54 percent)