Chronicle EditorVusumuzi Dube, Online News Editor
THE Bulawayo City Council (BCC) has cancelled four housing development tenders after developers either failed to deliver on their contracts within stipulated timeframes or abandoned the projects.
According to a council confidential report, the local authority has since terminated four of the contracts after the completion of the arbitration process. The contracts were for the development of 144 low density stands in Woodville and 14 medium density stands that had been awarded to Asphalt Constructions and 367 stands in Emganwini and 44 stands in Tshabalala that had been awarded to Tzircalle Brothers.
“The Town Clerk (Mr Christopher Dube) reported that the Asphalt Construction contracts had been referred to arbitration after council and the contractor had failed to agree on the separation package. The parties had agreed in principle that it was no longer possible to implement the project but could not agree on the separation package.
“However, after negotiations between the council’s legal practitioners and the contractor’s legal practitioners, the parties eventually arrived at a settlement plan which includes that the contract is terminated, the contractor will handover back the project vehicle to council and that the contractor will hand over all the office furniture bought for the purposes of the project,” reads the report.
Further in the agreement, the material which was left on site valued at ZWL$22 571 will be written off in the spirit of resolving the matter, with the laptop remaining in the custody of council while the cost of removing spoil from site valued at ZWL$45 088 will be paid by the contractor but will be set off with the retention money. BCC will also pay Asphalt de-establishment costs in the sum of ZWL$34 000.
“BCC shall pay Asphalt the sum of ZWL$27 000 in respect of standing/overhead costs in respect of this contract, BCC shall also pay Asphalt the sum of ZWL$90 977 for retention money in terms of the contract,” reads the report.
On the Tzircalle Brothers contracts it was noted that the arbitration process had been concluded in April, with the decision being in favour of council.
“The site was now back to council and the chamber secretary (Mrs Sikhangele Zhou) accordingly handed over the project back to the project manager to finish all the outstanding works and handover the stands to the beneficiaries,” reads the report.
According to the report, for the Woodville stands US$1,7 million is required to complete the outstanding works, with the local authority projecting that this could take six months. For the Emganwini and Tshabalala stands, the outstanding works require US$261 025, which could take two months to complete.
In 2019, the local authority revealed that they were adopting a new housing development policy that will see land developers not selling stands to home seekers, as this would be the sole responsibility of the local authority.
In the new policy, private developers no longer buy virgin land and sell undeveloped stands to residents but are expected to service the land with water, sewer and tarred roads first.
Temba Dube