Vusumuzi Dube
Rutendo Nyeve , Sunday News Reporter
THE high parking fees by Tendy Three Investment (TTI) and the continued closure of Egodini Bus Terminus which are all administered by the Bulawayo City Council (BCC) have been identified as the cause of de-investment in the city, with the latest being the relocation of an Edgars stores branch from the Central Business District (CBD), it has emerged.
Deputy Minister of Industry and Commerce Cde Raj Modi last week visited Edgars Stores Limited on a fact-finding mission following a story by this publication that the listed clothing manufacturer and retailer intends to relocate some of the functions of its headquarters from Bulawayo to Harare.
Cde Modi was accompanied by the Zanu-PF candidate for Bulawayo’s Ward 5, Cde Archbold Chiponda, when they met Edgars chief executive officer Mrs Tjeludo Ndlovu to discuss issues surrounding the operations of the company. Emerging from the closed-door meeting, Deputy Minister Modi said he received a detailed explanation from the company’s management on why it was considering relocating its head office.
“Following reports of the relocation, I visited the company on a fact-finding mission. The CEO explained that it was purely a business strategy meant to increase effectiveness of management as the bulk of their business is within Harare and within a 150-kilometre radius of Harare yet all the management was currently based in Bulawayo. She explained that it was only management positions moving to Harare and that factories and other business units would remain largely unchanged,” said Deputy Minister Modi.
He said the company cited the TTI parking system as well as the delay in the completion of the Egodini project as some of the factors that have brought down their business and forcing them to relocate some branches from the CBD. TTI charges US$1 per hour, with clamping fees for improperly parked cars pegged at US$34. Furthermore, residents have complained that cars were being clamped at areas that did not even have road markings and signs.
“With regards to the closure of the Edgars branch along Leopold Takawira, the CEO gave two main reasons, the TTI parking system and the delay in completion of the Egodini Project. Mrs Ndlovu explained that a big complaint of customers was the cost of having to pay to park to shop at our stores.
Furthermore, she said the delay in the completion of Egodini has grossly reduced foot traffic in that part of town. The CEO said that when Egodini was operational there was high traffic of people coming to and from Egodini and would pass through the store,” said Deputy Minister Modi.
When the company closed one of its branches in the city centre, it also cited the large numbers of illegal foreign currency dealers and vendors in the area as one of the reasons, saying they disrupted business. Edgars has opted to open a branch at Ascot Shopping Centre where parking is free for their customers and the geography of the area fits their target customer. Cde Chiponda said de-investment in the city was a result of poor decision-making and failure to deliver service by the local authority.
“This is a perfect illustration of what we have been saying all along. Council has been working on this relatively simple project (Egodini terminus and mall building) for over a decade now. It was supposed to be completed in 2016, that’s seven years ago. Now the effects of their ineptness and corruption are negatively affecting even big businesses such as Edgars. This is coupled with their TTI parking debacle which is wreaking havoc on the lives of residents as well as business, surely its time for residents of Bulawayo to say enough is enough,” said Cde Chiponda.
Edgars Stores Limited Group operates over 62 branches across the country with their headquarters in Bulawayo. The decision to relocate some functions of its headquarters was met with mixed feelings on this publication’s social media pages.
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