“One employee Threatens To Jump Off Sky Scrapper over poor salary
And was pulled from the brink …”
By Lloyd Takawira
Seating by me in a Zupco bus to Chitungwiza is an old frail-looking man in his late fifties.
Soliloquizing to himself, while glued to my phone l mistakenly thought he was talking to me.
“mataura neni here baba ” l quizzed. He replied, ” no my son, zvinhu zvemu Zimbabwe unopedzisira wakutaura woga ”
I couldn’t afford to laugh, but that was the beginning of a long conversation from Charge Office rank to Chigovanyika Shopping Center St Mary’s in Chitungwiza .
During the frowning and breathtaking conversation, l established that Mdara Joe (not real name) is an NRZ employee.
He took me down the archaic and debilitating situation they are finding themselves in while working at NRZ.
Mdara Joe narrated how they have gone for nearly a year without getting a decent salary , while the top executives at Railways are enjoying.
Worrisome, during the conversation, was to learn that Mdara Joe has a child who has just finished her grade seven.
After performing well with 6 Units and the dilemma with him was, will she proceed to secondary school considering his financial position.
True to a snippet of Mdara Joe’s story the NRZ employee’s situation is perturbing. Yesterday Zimbabwe was awash with news of an NRZ employee who threatened to jump off the company’s headquarters in central Bulawayo.
The 35-year-old NRZ employee was saved from suicide death.
Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) Bulawayo provincial spokesperson Chief Inspector Precious Simango confirmed the disturbing incident. She said:
“Security guards at the building alerted the Fire Brigade and they managed to rescue him. Police arrived at the scene after Banda had already been sent to the hospital.
The suicidal man was identified as Andrew Banda of Balfour Road in Bellevue.
He climbed the roof of the 110-meter high (360ft) National Railways of Zimbabwe building, a company he works for”
Reports are that before Banda had attempted suicide, he had reportedly complained that his salary was not enough to buy anything.
True to the two disturbing stories of Mdara Joe and Banda . The untold story of NRZ employees is worrisome.
While government and the executive’s at NRZ continue to play games with the partial NRZ privatization, the employee is at loggerheads.
