As Zimbabwe's rail system collapses, vice thrives in the trains left behind

INSIDE the abandoned trains of Zimbabwe's once-proud railway system, sex workers try to catch the attention of passing men, while drug dealers sell codeine-laced cough syrup and homeless families search for places to sleep.

For nearly two years, Zimbabwe's passenger rail system has been completely shut down - a sign of a decaying economy under the country's authoritarian government. The rail cars, parked idly in train stations, have become brothels, drug dens, playgrounds for street children and rough shelters for homeless people.

"These trains have become no-go areas for us at night because dangerous criminals use them as their hideouts," said Archibald Hanzu, who lives near the central train station in Zimbabwe's capital, Harare. "They have turned into breeding grounds for crime."

It's an ignominious fate for a system that can be traced back to the late 19th century. It was once a pillar of the ambitious "Cape to Cairo Railway," an unfinished plan to traverse the entire African continent from south to north.

After Zimbabwe won independence in 1980, the trains ferried workers and managers to factories in one of Africa's most industrialized economies. Commuter trains in major cities were nicknamed "Freedom Trains."

But over the past two decades, Zimbabwe's economy has fallen into steep decline, largely because of state dysfunction under the autocratic regimes of former president Robert Mugabe and current president Emmerson Mnangagwa.

Hundreds of factories have shut down. Electricity and water systems are deteriorating, with frequent power cuts and water shortages. Hospitals and clinics are hobbled by shortages of medicine and other supplies.

While railway lines are being expanded to boost economic growth in many African countries - including Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Angola - the opposite is happening in Zimbabwe. Most of its freight rail system has collapsed, and its passenger system is completely moribund, with no sign of any imminent revival.

"All passenger trains remain suspended," Andrew Kunambura, a spokesperson for National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ), told The Globe and Mail.

Passenger services were first halted in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Commuter trains were relaunched briefly in Harare in 2021, but were suspended again in November, 2022.

"When you see people talking about NRZ being dead, it's mainly because of passenger services," NRZ general manager Respina Zinyanduko told a parliamentary committee in July.

"When they see our old coaches, to them, that's the definition of the organization's death."

At Harare's central station, passenger trains are surrounded by overgrown grass and shrubs. On the benches where passengers once waited, station workers now sit idle, scanning their phones or playing chess. Some say their wages are rarely paid on time, but they report for duty anyway.

Railway offices have been converted into bars, restaurants and butcher shops. Street vendors, who once sold sweets and cigarettes to train passengers, now try to hawk their goods to the bar and restaurant customers, but their sales are meagre.

"I used to board the trains selling my wares on the passenger trains," said 36-year-old Ruramai Mukamba.

"There were hundreds of travellers every day. But the passenger trains that used to give me business are the ones grounded here, going nowhere."

Drug dealers and sex workers, meanwhile, have moved into the empty trains, and they say their businesses are thriving. The train station gives them a base of operations without the hassle of the police raids that are common in other parts of the city.

Sex workers gather around the rail cars or lean out of train windows to wave at men. They smuggle their customers into the cars to avoid the cost of hotels.

"If I get a client, I just bring him here and get into any of the open passenger trains, which we don't pay for using," said 24-year-old Lindiwe Zilawe, who added that she performs sex work daily at Harare's train station.

"The security guards are the only problems we have, but a dollar is enough to silence any of them."

Elsewhere on the trains, street children run through the corridors, playing hide and seek.

"It's warm on the trains at night and we don't get soaked if it rains," 12-year-old Lamu Chigoni said.

A homeless man, Tavengwa Mutsauri, said he has been sleeping in abandoned railway cars with his wife and young child for years. They have to find a different train each time, because there are so many other homeless people doing this.

"We spend the day in town where I clean cars, while my wife begs from motorists and pedestrians, and in the evening we sneak back into the parked trains to sleep," he said.

"If you come here in the late evenings, you'll find many of us here. I hope these trains can just remain here so that we have a roof over our heads."

Zimbabwean researchers and activists say the collapse of the passenger rail system is a symptom of wider issues in the country: corruption, mismanagement, neglect and state failure.

"This is having a significant impact on the people of Zimbabwe because railroads were once the most affordable mode of transportation," said Mpumelelo Hondo, a civil engineer and development expert.

"Passenger trains are considered to be more cost-effective and environmentally friendly in other developing countries. The collapse of passenger trains indicates mismanagement and misappropriation of public finances."