By Kudzai Chimhangwa
Namibian railway parastatal, Transnamib says it is embarking on a restructuring exercise that will see it retrenching 1400 employees.
This comes after the state owned railway enterprise said that it is incurring a N$30 million monthly loss.
The government of Namibia is the sole shareholder in the company.
In 2014, the railway enterprise attempted to retrench at least 1000 workers as part of restructuring plans but decided otherwise after concerted public furore.
Transnamib Board Chairman Paul Smit said the state enterprise intends to sell non essential assets such as trucks in order to raise N$200 million needed for voluntary retirements.
“We are continually making a loss of of N$30 million a month and we cannot continue like that,” said Smit.
“We are in negotiations with government. It’s talks between ourselves and government to sell some of our non core properties that we don’t need for rail transport,” he said.
For the 2013/2014 financial year, Transnamib received N$300 million from government and an additional N$400 million for the the 2015/2016 year.
The conpnay intends to discontinue the road and freight business and instead focus on railway transportation of goods and passengers.
Transnamib owns 103 locomotives among them 6 new ones acquired by government earlier this year.
Out of the total fleet, 52 locomotives are operational with most of them being more than 50 years old.
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