Gwanda – A luxury train carrying international tourists was involved in a head-on collision with a goods train carrying coal leaving 13 people injured in Gwanda, South West of Zimbabwe early on Friday.
The private luxury train owned by Rovos Rail of South Africa, headed to Victoria Falls and carrying 47 international tourists, collided with a goods train owned by the Beitbridge Bulawayo Railway (BBR) service outside Gwanda.
Rail collisions are common in Zimbabwe where the system is old and dilapidated.
The National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) said the railway line was not run by the parastatal.
“We have been inundated with inquiries concerning the collision of two trains in Gwanda today. We inform the nation that NRZ does not operate on that line as it is privately controlled,” NRZ said in a statement.
“We join the nation in wishing those injured a speedy recovery.”
However, the NRZ four days earlier said one it’s goods train carrying coal to Zambia caught fire.
Hopewell Chin’ono a journalist and activist accused President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government of failing to repair the dilapidated railway system.
“I have been repeatedly saying on this page that Zimbabwe’s railway system has become a death trap after years without maintenance due to corruption, incompetence, and Mnangagwa’s cluelessness in running a country,” Chin’ono said.
“The injured have been taken to hospital, where they are likely to come face to face with a dilapidated healthcare service and the nightmare that Zimbabweans face daily in the country’s hospitals due to corruption.”