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Vusumuzi Dube, Municipal Reporter
TEARRACOTTA private limited, the developer tasked with rehabilitating Egodini bus terminus into a modern bus terminus and shopping mall are reportedly working on revaluating the cost of the project upwards, noting that the initial $60 million projection was no longer feasible.
In an interview, one of the Tearracotta directors, Mr Thulani Moyo said with the current economic developments in the country, they will be fooling themselves if they continued to project that the project will cost $60 million.
He said they were thus working on revaluating the project however noting that the cost will continue changing as they continue construction work, depending on that country’s economic situation.
“The current situation is a bit difficult but it’s not only the cost but even in the last week or so we have been in discussion with some potential suppliers and some of them have begun to say that they want only US dollars, they are not accepting any electronic money transfers.
“These are some of the challenges which we were obviously expecting to face but we are in Zimbabwe, we are in Africa so we have accepted that this is the way of doing business. Therefore the $60 million cost which we initially set will obviously change as the project goes on, as a developer we will also continuously re-evaluate the figure according to the existing economic conditions,” said Mr Moyo.
He however revealed that they would strive to come up with the best possible deals with suppliers which will effectively reduce the cost burden of the project by assuring the contractor and subcontractors are availed with the most financially viable deals.
“Using our business centre we will strive to negotiate with suppliers and see whether we can enter into a formal arrangement where we get the best possible rates and tariffs, further we are ensuring that we pay our suppliers upfront but it also means that we have to work with credible and reliably suppliers,” said Mr Moyo.
The Tearracotta director further paid attribute to President Mnangagwa’s administration noting that ever since the administration took over in November last year, ease for doing business in the country had been extremely enhanced.
He said the Second Republic had brought about a renewed zeal to do business and help develop Zimbabwe, which he noted was going to naturally attract more investors into the country.
“President Mnangagwa’s Zimbabwe is open for business mantra has surely worked wonders for us as a developer, not only now after elections but even before elections, since November last year.
“We saw a big change in attitude because when working on this project we interact with a lot of government departments, the culture, approach and attitude has significantly changed. There is a more responsiveness approach; there is also that approach of the zeal to assist where they need to assist so I think this has really assisted us,” he said.
Mr Moyo noted that in the previous government they were a lot of bottlenecks which ended up frustrating the investor from investing in the country.
“Where ever there are challenges it’s no longer the old traditional government way of saying this thing cannot be done because it cannot be done but now things have changed for the positive.
“If it can continue that way and more organisations can do those type of things then we can get to where we are supposed to be as a country because if you go to other countries you will see that there is professionalism and business approach in the government departments which is exactly what is happening with the coming of President Mnangagwa,” said the Tearracotta director.
Mr Moyo revealed that as job seekers continued to have their details captured in their data base they hoped that for phase one of the project they would employ between 300 and 350 people.
“Our projection is that we open phase one of the project, the bus terminus, in November 2019 that is in time for the festive season after which we will start working on phase two, which will be the shopping mall.
“One of the softer things which we will do in phase two is that since phase two will be along Lobhengula Street and we want to celebrate the life of King Lobhengula hence wer plan to put King Lohbengula’s statue there just to celebrate our culture and heritage. We will obviously work with the department of arts and culture so that they guide us on how this will happen,” said Mr Moyo.
derick.khumalo