Zinwa records $l, 8m profit
Tabitha Mutenga Features Editor
Financial Gazette
12/5/2019
THE Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa) is back in the black after it registered a $1,8 million profit after tax in 2018, up from a loss of $2,5 million in 2017.
Zinwa is one of State-owned entities struggling meet their obligations such as the payment of creditors and other statutory requirements that include taxes and levies.
Agriculture minister Perrance Shiri last week applauded the organisation for turning around its fortunes from a loss-making parastatal to a productive entity.
“Zinwa has now recovered from a largely loss making entity incapable of meeting its obligations to stakeholders, creditors and employees.” he said in his first interaction with the new water regulator’s board chaired by Bongile Ndiweni who took over from Michael Tumbare.
“The Authority recorded $1,8 million profit and is now firmly placed on a growth trajectory. Therefore I expect the board to build on the current momentum and guide Zinwa on this upward trend and transform it into a highly modernised water utility,” he said.
However, despite this commendable set of results, the water utility is owed millions of dollars by its diverse clients.
“The parastatal is currently owed over RTGS $110 million by various debtors with local authorities and farmers owing the bulk of this money,” Shiri said.
“You will need to develop innovative ways which allows for the collection of the money while at the same time ensuring farming operations and service provision by local authorities do not grind to a halt.”
The retired air marshall indicated that a lot of emphasis has been placed on the need for state owned enterprises to provide top notch services to clients.
“Gone are the days when parastatals gave below standard services to clients, banking on their statutory existence,” he said.
Shiri added that government was working on the transformation of state owned enterprises to become viable and more efficient.
“This second republic now expects parastatals to be run on a sound basis that hinges on proper and timely service delivery without resorting to treasury for financing. I thus expect this new board to steer the Zinwa ship so that it operates and metamorphose into a highly customer-centric organisation whose decisions, processes and practices are informed by the need to meet and respond to client needs,” he said.
The minister also urged the new board to ensure the completion of Gwayi Shangani Dam, Tuli Manyange Dam, Semwa Dam, Bindura Dam which he said are critical for the realisation of the country’s socio-economic development in the areas of energy, sanitation, agriculture and food security. [email protected]