In a post on X, the NRZ said security personnel deployed a
drone along the tracks in Msasa, Harare and saw the women picking coal ash
thereby vandalising the railway line in the process, which is a serious offence
in terms of Zimbabwean laws.
Coal ash is mostly used to strengthen the rail formation
where it passes through a swampy area.
The quartet, Ethel Jonas, Priscilla Mazvarirahafa, Aruna
Chimedza and Tatenda Mashingaidze were this week each sentenced to five years
in jail after pleading guilty at the Harare Magistrates Courts.
The spate of theft and vandalism of railway infrastructure
has become a threat to economic viability while also endangering human lives
and crippling bulk commercial cargo movement due to train derailments.
It is against this background that the NRZ has over the
years intensified the fight against vandalism through massive equipping of its
loss control unit in terms of human resources and acquisition of drones amongst
other hi-tech crime detection equipment.-New Ziana.
