adminFidelis Munyoro
Chief Court Reporter
Augur Investments OU business operations in Zimbabwe are aboveboard, the company’s former top executive has said in a statement meant to overcome false information being hawked against the company by its detractors.
At the centre of a misinformation campaign against the company is the Airport Road project, the reconstruction and dualisation of the highway linking Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport with the top end of Seke Road.
The project came into being in 2008 after Augur Investments OU and Harare City formed a joint venture for a land development project.
However, there have recently been misinformation campaigns on several media platforms, including articles featured in the press, driven by people desperate to avoid accountability, according to Augur Investments former managing director Mr Michael van Blerk.
“My suspicion is that defendants accused of wrongdoing against Augur Investments and its employees are using these false statements to evade responsibility before Zimbabwe’s legitimate courts,” he said in a statement he authored to set the record straight.
Mr Blerk said in 2008, Augur Investments and the City of Harare formed a joint venture for the Sunshine Land Development project which saw local staff being recruited for the work, which included Mbudzi People’s Market, a 6 000 square metre covered market, among other projects.
The joint venture was approved by the Government in 2009. Augur Investments was registered as a foreign investor with the Ministry of Justice, said Mr Blerk.
“This joint venture invited Augur to plan, design, and construct the Airport Highway. As the Airport Highway is a national road, Augur and the City of Harare were required to obtain Government approval in order for Augur to construct it,” explains Mr Blerk.
“One of the largest road construction companies in Southern Africa, Power Roads, priced the project independently.
“The recently built Ngezi Road which was finished with chip and spray tarmac inferior to the asphalt finish of the Airport Highway, was compared to the Airport Highway, and found to be more expensive despite the cheaper chip and spray product. Augur’s price for asphalt per running metre was considerably lower.
“The plan was approved by the President and Cabinet after being presented to the Government. The Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Local Government were designated as Government supervisors by Cabinet with final approval received from the Ministry of Finance.”
Mr Blerk said after the council failed to make cash payments, 90 percent of Augur’s payment was offered in the form of land instead of cash.
The Government, he said, supported the initiative and contributed additional land to the project to aid the City of Harare. This was reduced to a legally binding contract signed by both parties.
Mr Blerk also said before land tranches were paid out to Augur, the Zimbabwean-hired design engineers, Ministry of Transport engineers, City of Harare engineers, and Ministry of Local Government engineers were responsible for reviewing and approving the work and progress certificates/invoices.
“To facilitate this payment process, Augur formed a number of Zimbabwean landholding corporations and received RBZ approval for these Zimbabwean landholding corporations and their offshore shareholding,” he said.
“Only after official and approved progress payment certification by the three governing entities would land be released.”
Augur recruited Fairclot, a local company, as a subcontractor under its direct supervision. Fairclot was not the entity responsible for construction, but rather a subcontractor hired to do the supervised work.
In exchange for its services, Fairclot initially agreed to accept a 25 percent cash payment and a 75 percent land payment, Mr Blerk explained, adding that the land payment portion could only be made after delivery of title from City of Harare.
“Fairclot breached these original contractual terms, and demanded a revision to a 40 percent cash payment and 60 percent land payment,” he said.
“Augur paid Fairclot 40 percent of the invoiced amounts in cash, close to US$4 million in amount, with the remaining 60 percent to be paid in land.”
Mr Blerk further stated that the operational incompetence of the Harare City Council resulted in massive delays at Augur’s expense, impeding work from beginning to end.
This resulted in Augur suffering the brunt of delay-related expenses. Then, he said, Harare City attempted illegally to terminate the valid contract, resulting in arbitration, which Augur, represented by Advocate Nelson Chamisa, ultimately won.
The arbitration and subsequent court award mandated that Augur be compensated with a parcel of government-owned land whose title was held by a law firm with which Augur had a close working relationship, he said.
“Tragically, the appointed partner of this firm had died, disrupting the flow of information at the law firm, and the title deed was not delivered to Augur. Resolution was affected with the intervention of the Sheriff of the court,’ he said.
Mr Blerk said following the successful arbitration, Fairclot was offered a land parcel as settlement for the outstanding payment, but declined this contractual payment and elected to pursue legal action.
In the end, he said, Fairclot was awarded a cash payment as a result of a court ruling, and Augur duly met this obligation.
“For unclear reasons, one of the Fairclot directors subsequently had a large billboard libelling Augur’s legal rights erected in Borrowdale and is currently on trial for this violation,” he said.
Despite all this, Mr Blerk said, Augur continues its land development with multiple award-winning projects and will continue to do so, transforming polluted, undeveloped land in Harare into outstanding residential developments despite the statements made by a few disgruntled defendants on trial for legal misconduct.
He insists that the facts he has laid bare can be verified by examining public court records in cases HC5989/19 and HC10315/19 among others.
Peter Tanyanyiwa
Online Reporter