Online Reporter
Mkhululi Ncube [email protected]
THE Bulawayo City Council (BCC) is weighing options after Terracotta Trading (Pvt) Limited, which was awarded tender to develop the former Egodini taxi rank into a modern mall and regional transport hub has repeatedly failed to meet deadlines since taking over the site in 2016.
The company was awarded the tender in 2015 but 11 years down the line, only a section of commuter omnibus operators has been opened and the bulk of the work, which includes establishing a shopping mall, is yet to commence. The investment was expected to cost millions of dollars and would have been one of the biggest in the city.
Responding to questions during a media engagement at the Council Chambers on Wednesday, Acting Town Clerk, Mrs Sikhangele Zhou, said the South African company missed the latest July 1, 2026 deadline given by council.
“The Egodini project continues to be a headache to us; for starters, they are out of time, and they changed their shareholding structure. They had promised that the changes would strengthen them so that they would be able to resume work,” she said.
“They were set to resume work on 1 July according to what they had promised us, but they have failed to do so. We have put them on terms, that is, to ask them to explain themselves so that we may consider our options going forward.
“The council thought there was hope with the restructuring of Terracotta. We thought we could give the new structure a chance to complete the project but we were disappointed when they didn’t return.”
Mrs Zhou said the council was watching the company closely and action to be taken will be determined by their reaction.
Stakeholders have said the non-completion of the project was responsible for the congestion and chaos in the city centre.
Many kombi operators that have refused to use the opened section are operating from multiple illegal pick-up points in the CBD.
