adminZvamaida Murwira
Senior Reporter
All compensation for those property owners affected by the construction of Mbudzi Interchange in Harare is expected to be agreed and paid in August.
Permanent Secretary for Transport and Infrastructural Development, Engineer Theodius Chinyanga, said the ministry was prioritising those people in the critical path of construction works so that the project was not delayed.
Speaking on Tuesday evening during ZBC TV current affairs programme “Face the Nation” he said: “In terms of progress we are sitting at around 35 percent being defined by the bridges that have been completed to date. But there are certain works that our contractor could not do because we were lagging behind with compensation.
“What we had planned with Treasury was everybody would have been paid by December 31 (2022), but that did not happen because of our own circumstances. We had emergencies elsewhere that Treasury had to attend to and we could not just destroy people’s homes because by virtue of putting up that structure and taking them out of their homes is a pain in itself.
“We have a sensitive Government which says if we have not compensated someone they continue staying in those houses undisturbed until such time we have paid compensation and have alternative place to live in.”
Eng Chinyanga said the Government was already in the process of making payments and had to date paid half of those that were in the critical path of construction works.
“In terms of compensation quantum, it is US$35 million to those who hold title deeds,” he said.
“We have another number who are on a lease arrangement, but those are not on our critical path. What Ministry of Finance has done, realising that compensation is standing in the way of the critical path, is to say we acknowledge this obligation, but we cannot muscle it all at once, so we have put them in priorities.
“Priority one are those staying close to the current works going on, because of the dangers of things going wrong with construction, those have been paid.
“We moved to priority two and three simultaneously because Treasury found some money and want to spend it on this batch of people and those are being paid out as we speak.
“So, in terms of our project, we think by end of August or latest September everyone on our critical path within the area of the interchange will be paid.”
Eng Chinyanga said Government had to restructure the funding model after getting an offer from one of the contractors to fund it on a loan and that also affected compensation time frame.
“We were planning as Government to fund the project, but when an offer came about from Fossil Mines to fund, it means we then found ourselves five steps ahead of our plan,” he said.
“Those plans were scuttled when we found an offer that was acceptable to Government and that would bring forward the project, but what did not move fast was the compensation because the plan was to do it at a later stage.”
Eng Chinyanga said the Government was happy with construction works, as well as the workmanship by contractors whom he said were experienced.
“I have no record or report of a bridge having fallen,” he said.
“The structure of such mega projects are attended dutifully by qualified people. The entity that designed that facility was chosen out of a competitive process.
“Firstly, it was an expression of interest, shortlisting technical proposals; then a financial proposal and this entity won. On the technical proposal we are looking at the personnel and their experience on similar projects they have carried out before. The entity is Zimbabwean operating both in Zimbabwean and South Africa.””They have done bridges and interchanges in Zimbabwe and South Africa and they have been carrying out another one in Rwanda. So we have confidence in this consultant. He is coming to assist the Government because by going to tender for such services we are acknowledging the deficiencies that we have in-house.”
The US$88 million Mbudzi interchange is at the intersection of Simon Mazorodze Road, Chitungwiza Road, and High Glen Road in Harare.
Mbudzi roundabout had been a major choke-point of Southern Harare before Government committed resources to turn it into a multilevel interchange as the Second Republic continues to upgrade infrastructure to cope with modern demands and trends.
Some of the benefits of the project include decongestion of the Mbudzi area by creating streamlined and efficient traffic flow, reducing transit time and accidents in the area.
The project is creating direct employment for over 700 employees and downstream activities for over 10 000 people, while creating skills transfer and upgrade for the Department of Roads staff.
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