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Bulawayo Bureau
The chairman of the National Railways of Zimbabwe board of directors, Engineer Alvord Mabena, has been fired with immediate effect.

Eng Mabena has been the NRZ board chairperson for the past 17 months and his term was set to expire in 2017.

The Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development relieved Eng Mabena of his duties last Friday as part of a restructuring meant to position the ailing parastatal for growth.

NRZ board vice chairperson, Brigadier David Chiweza, has been appointed acting chairperson.

The rest of the board remains unchanged.

Eng Mabena’s dismissal letter is dated November 5, 2015, and it was signed by the Minister of Transport and Infrastructural Development, Joram Gumbo.

“As you may be aware, the ministry has been re-aligning its strategic vision with that of parastatals and State institutions. To that end it has become necessary that I terminate your term of office as chairman of NRZ with immediate effect,” reads part of the letter.

Minister Gumbo declined to comment on the matter yesterday.

Eng Mabena expressed regret over his unexpected axing which he described as a bombshell.

“I received a letter from the minister out of the blue informing me that my services have been terminated with immediate effect. It’s not clear why they have decided to do so,” said Mabena.

“I’m disappointed because of these stop-start things. Naturally, I have been working with a passion and putting a lot of effort in trying to revive the NRZ. I worked hard not only to serve the NRZ, but the nation.”

He said it was unfortunate that each time a new minister was appointed, he brought in his own people and the NRZ had suffered because of that.

Eng Mabena said he would continue serving his country where his services were needed.

He said the letter came as a surprise to him as the minister did not mention anything negative when they met soon after his appointment in September.

“I met him on two occasions and he didn’t mention anything along those lines. He actually commended the board for doing well and we discussed the way forward on reviving the NRZ and future programmes before the bombshell was dropped on Friday,” said Eng Mabena.

Sources within the parastatal said the minister was not happy with the process of appointing a new general manager.

Last month, there was confusion over the selection process with the board adamant that it had completed the process and short-listed three candidates while the ministry insisted that the process must be redone.