South African company Terracota was awarded the tender for
the project, touted as a game changer in the city, but has failed to develop
the area within the set deadlines.
The company was supposed to complete the first phase in
November last year but failed and requested that the deadline be moved to the
end of next month.
However, with a few weeks before end of the second
deadline, authorities in Bulawayo have indicated that they will be left with no
option but to terminate the contract and restart the process of getting another
contractor.
The contractors started work in March 2018. Upon
completion, the mall will have 50 shops, a bus terminus, commuter omnibus bays
and modern informal trader bays with storage counters as well as taxi
association offices.
“The first phase of the Egodini Project was meant to have
been completed by November 2019 of which we all know that the contractor missed
that deadline. They then requested that the deadline be extended until the end
of the first quarter of 2020 and with what is on the ground, I do not see them
meeting that deadline.
“As it stands we have a lot of pressure from our
stakeholders regarding that very project, we are also under pressure from a
town planning perspective in terms of our vendors and commuter omnibuses,
therefore we will be forced to exercise our powers of terminating the contract
if need be, of which we will be guided by the terms and conditions of the
contract,” said Bulawayo Town Clerk Mr Christopher Dube.
The project has experienced a number of false starts since
Terracotta won the tender in September 2012. It was expected to gobble close to
$60 million, with the company also awarded with a 99-year lease to the
terminus. Mr Dube said when the local
authority sets parameters for projects,
there is a clear provision on the necessary steps that could be taken whenever
a company fails to meet contractual obligations. Since the closure of Egodini,
Bulawayo has experienced chaos in vending and commuter omnibus operations.
Vendors who used to operate from Egodini have set base in the Central Business
District blocking pavements and entrances to business premises.
Most of them have also refused to be relocated to new bases
outside the Central Business District, arguing that business was low in the
periphery of the city centre. Commuter omnibuses which used to pick up
passengers at the terminus are now picking and dropping them off in the city
centre.
The Egodini Project is not the only project which has
fallen behind time in the city. Mr Dube said the local authority was also
sweating over the US$150 million solid waste to energy project by Pragma Leaf
Consulting Zimbabwe (Pvt) Ltd.
The project was initiated through the support of the Common
Market for East and Southern Africa (Comesa) in 2012.
In May last year, the project developers said they were in
the process of completing the front-end engineering design (FEED) study that
will include acquisition of all required land and licensing, a process which
was anticipated to be complete by the end of last year with construction
commencing at the beginning of this year, and production of bio-fuels expected
to follow thereafter.
Mr Dube also revealed that the local authority was fast
losing patience with the investor as they were already in breach of the contract signed with the local authority.
“Same as Terracotta, there is nothing happening on the
ground with Pragma Leaf, they just give us updates, claiming that they are
still mobilising resources. As a local authority we are now becoming impatient
as when you look at the contract and set timelines, Pragma Leaf is already in
breach. We will soon be forced to sit down and review all these contracts so
that we derive a way forward because it is the local authority that is found to
be on the losing end,” he said.
According to Pragma Leaf, up to US$150 million was expected
to be channelled into the project while more than 300 jobs were to be created
at the plant and about 2 000 jobs downstream. In addition, a number of housing
projects that were awarded to private companies have stalled in the city,
drawing ire from beneficiaries.
Some beneficiaries had paid in full for their residential
stands. Affected areas include Mqabuko Heights, Cowdray Park Hlalani Kuhle Housing
project, Pelandaba West and Beuna Vista. Sunday News
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