Chronicle Editor
Vusumuzi Dube, Senior Municipal Reporter
SOUTH Africa-based developer — Terracotta Private Limited — tasked with the rehabilitation of Egodini Bus Terminus in Bulawayo only got their development permit to start the project two weeks ago, exposing city council which had previously blasted the company for dragging its feet in implementing the multi-million-dollar project.
It has further been exposed that it was difficult for the development permit to be awarded as the local authority had some administrative obligations to cater for, inclusive of purchasing of private buildings located within the project area, consolidating it into one stand.
Terracotta won the bid to renovate the bus terminus into a modern facility with a shopping mall, more than eight years ago but to date no major construction works have taken place serve for demolitions. This saw the Bulawayo councillors constantly threatening to cancel the contract and retendering the project, claiming that the contractor no longer had the capacity to go ahead with the project.
However, in an exclusive interview with Sunday News from his South Africa base, Terracotta director, Mr Thulani Moyo, revealed that while it would seem that they had not done anything since December 2019, the buck was with the local authority which had to get the development permit for works to commence.
A development permit allows a property owner to construct, renovate or make an addition to a structure on a property located within a Development Permit Area. A development permit must be applied for and issued, prior to applying for a building permit.
“What I must first confirm is that we got the development permit last week (two weeks back), which now gives us the green light to go back on site and start working. What happened is that when council initially handed over the site to us they indicated what initial works we could do, of which we did that. The initial thinking was that while we worked on the initial works council could be working on other administrative loopholes for the facilitation of the development permit which is why we were then in a position to do demolition works among other initial works,” said Mr Moyo.
He revealed that one of the major hindrances to getting the development permit was the failure to consolidate the facility into one stand as there were some stands within the project area that did not belong to the local authority.
“We actually volunteered to pay the consultant fees, to help consolidate the stands into one stand with the surveyor-general’s office, something which according to the contract was something meant to be handled by the local authority. This was just our way of showing how committed we are in commencing this project. All that we want for now is to push the project forward and bring this state-of-the-art bus terminus to the city of Bulawayo,” he said.
Questioned on when they will be moving on site now that the development permit was out, Mr Moyo said they were now engaging the various contractors to see what works can be commenced before the end of the year.
“As you might know the construction industry usually goes on an annual break from December to January, we are however, mobilising the various contractors we are working with to see what works can be done before this annual break, therefore I can say we can be back on site sooner than later to squeeze in the little that can be done before the break,” said Mr Moyo.
Contacted for comment Bulawayo Town Clerk Mr Christopher Dube confirmed that Terracotta had finally got the development permit saying they now expected the company to avail them with a programme of works.
The project which experienced a number of false starts since Terracotta won the tender in September 2012, is expected to gobble close to $60 million, with the company also awarded with a 99-year lease to the terminus.
According to a council report Phase 1A of the project will include the construction of 1 100 informal traders’ stalls, a 100-bay taxi rank, security wall, security tower, motor retail, taxi associations offices, public ablutions and a service lane. Phase 1B includes the construction of the bus terminus building, fast-food shops and the grocery anchor.
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