So far, at least 46 of the 51 owners of industrial, commercial and residential properties that must be demolished to make way for the Mbudzi interchange in Harare have accepted their compensation awards and the last five should be sorted out very soon, with the money now being processed and paid.
The interchange replacing the old Mbudzi roundabout, with
its 14 bridges and bridge-like structures, plus the left-turn slip roads will
occupy far more land than the old inadequate roundabout so the nearby private
property had to be bought out.
This is allowed under laws stretching back many decades,
with the property owners guaranteed full compensation based on the actual
market value of the acquired property when it was being used before the
interchange was announced.
This means that the property owners cannot be given reduced
compensation because the land is no longer producing revenue, nor can they
charge a premium for scarce land needed for road works, but can claim what
their property was worth when used for commerce, industry or as a residence.
The Government followed the laid down procedure by bringing
in three professional valuers, one of them from the Ministry of Local
Government and Public Works, and two being independent in the private sector,
to carry out the assessment of the value of the properties being taken over.
The normal procedure in these cases is to average the three
valuations.
The Mbudzi roundabout is at the intersection of Simon
Mazorodze, Chitungwiza and High Glen Roads that feed traffic from western
Chitungwiza and many old and new suburbs into Harare city centre, as well as
the heavy national and regional traffic on the Harare-Masvingo Highway.
Construction of the interchange road is being carried out
by Tefoma Construction, a consortium set up by Tensor Systems, Fossil
Contracting and Masimba Construction.
Transport and Infrastructural Development Minister Felix
Mhona yesterday confirmed the compensation progress during a tour of the Mbudzi
roundabout.
“When you partake such a project there are issues to do
with relocations where you got people with title deeds, others had settled
themselves illegally and this has been a very topical issue but let me hasten
to acknowledge and to appreciate when we say we have a listening President. He
then says we need to then compensate adequately those who are going to be
disturbed because of this project.
“I am happy as we discuss now, that has been achieved and
if you would witness we had close to 51 property owners with title deeds and we
had close to 135 those that had actually settled here, maybe through council
while others had settled themselves illegally.
“As we speak, out of the 51 property owners we are only
left with five that we are engaging closely but we have agreed on the
compensation framework. And I must commend the Second Republic again, the
funding has been availed and as we speak we are busy processing and we are
close to 30, those we are actually processing so that we compensate them
adequately and they are agreeable to that framework,” he said.
Minister Mhona said by end of next week they would have
engaged closely those five property owners who are remaining.
“So you see accelerated works happening at this place
because now we can demolish those properties that we have agreed with the
owners. The idea behind is this is an economic enabler. If you talk of a good
road network and if you see this stretch it starts from North South and South
North, we are talking of 900km to Chirundu and it’s not going to end here on
the Harare-Beitbridge Road. It’s Beitbridge-Harare-Chirundu.
“We have empowered our own contractors now they have
capacity and have demonstrated that they can do much bigger projects, so we are
also moving towards the north.
“We were are going to start with Chirundu, rehabilitating
that border post just like what we have done at Beitbridge Border Post. We will
rehabilitate the border post and also start rehabilitating the road from
Chirundu as well,” he said.
Minister Mhona said the five contractors on the almost
complete Harare-Beitbridge Road had also undertaken other projects under the
Emergency Road Rehabilitation Programme and commended for the sterling work
they were doing.
“So I am happy that as we do our tour. The idea behind it
is to brag about what we can do as Zimbabweans and to demonstrate to the
outside world that yes, we are under sanctions, but we need to move with speed
and also make sure that we have the infrastructure that we desire as a nation,”
he said.
Chitungwiza Road was now being redone since there was an
outcry from the public over the stretch from Manyame River Bridge going towards
Makoni.
Government has also moved in to rehabilitate and widen
Amalinda Road and to construct the bridges along the road as they now have the
designs for the road. High Glen and Highfield Roads are also going to be
widened and dualised.
“When we talked about the interchange costing US$88
million, some people were saying where is this figure coming from? But we said
we will take you through each stage where it covers the detours, where it
covers this road network, where it covers the interchange.
“So it’s not just like someone comparing that in other
jurisdictions it will cost US$10 million. It’s not fair to the contractor, or
to the nation, because you are comparing two different scenarios,” Minister
Mhona said.
The widening of the Beitbridge-Harare-Chirundu Highway,
plus its reconstruction and rehabilitation, is a critical component of the
North-South Corridor.
The project is being undertaken by five local companies and
is being wholly funded by the Government.
So far over 354km of the rehabilitated highway has been
opened to traffic.
The 971km highway has been divided into three sections:
Beitbridge-Harare of 570km with eight toll plazas, Harare-Chirundu of 342km
with six toll plazas and the Harare Ring Road of 59km with three toll plazas.
Under the Infrastructure, Utilities and Digital Economy
cluster in Zimbabwe’s economic blueprint, the National Development Strategy
(NDS1), road rehabilitation is given a high priority since so much relies on
having a decent road network in place.
Addressing the inaugural Buy Zimbabwe 2022 public
procurement conference and awards ceremony in Harare recently, President
Mnangagwa said local companies contracted by the Government to reconstruct and
rehabilitate roads and highways were doing sterling and professional work,
which highlights their capabilities.
Previously, local companies were being overlooked in terms
of the awarding of tenders for big national projects.
The President said under the Second Republic, the
Government took a bold, decisive and revolutionary decision to fundamentally
transform the country through the awarding of procurement contracts and tenders
to local enterprises.
The move by the Government has significantly helped to
create and domesticate employment, as well as improve skills levels, while also
saving the country some foreign currency.
Under the second phase of the Emergency Road Rehabilitation
Programme, the Government is resealing 1 290km of roads, reconstructing 427
drainage structures and working on 24 830km of erosion works and drains across
the country.
The Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure Development is
also working with local authorities as the implementing agent in carrying out
the roadworks under ERRP2.
Cabinet had declared the country’s road network as a state
of disaster to allow central Government to step in ahead of local authorities,
especially municipalities which generally have high levels of independence.
Councillors who belong to CCC party, and are the majority
elected in urban areas, have been doing nothing to improve the roads, hence
Government’s intervention.
Government has since mandated the Department of Roads to
take over 500km of roads from urban councils.
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