WATCH: Egodini project gets boost

Vusumuzi Dube, Online News Editor
ONE of South Africa’s largest property development company, McCormick Property Development have thrown their financial weight behind Bulawayo’s Egodini Bus Terminus rehabilitation project dispelling fears that the developer, Terracotta Private Limited did not have the funds to complete the project.

McCormick and Terracotta entered into a partnership for the rehabilitation of the project, which has missed a number of deadlines due to a number of reasons, chief of which has been the Covid-19 inspired national lockdown.

However, some residents and lobby groups had taken the delays to point to the lack of capacity by Terracotta to complete the project, with others even calling on the Bulawayo City Council (BCC) to retender the project.

 

The model of the rehabilitation project is such that the developer uses their own funds to complete the project and recoup their money through a Build Operate and Transfer mechanism.

In an interview on the sidelines of a tour of the project on Thursday, one of the McCormick directors, Mr Jason McCormick revealed that they were looking financially strong from their 2021 financial posting hence all the finances to be channelled towards the Egodini project were in place.

He said McCormick Properties posted the best financial growth submissions as compared to any property development entity in the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE).

“Our JSE listed company, had some of the best results that any property development company on the JSE recorded with a 38 percent growth in submissions, we had a big growth in our net mass value and we are looking very strong financially and we continue to support the investment into Zimbabwe and into Bulawayo through Terracotta.

“We committed to this project, I know what we have paid for, it’s coming through the border the next weekend and the week thereafter, so I know the money we are spending, so as I said earlier that there is no doubt that we are capitalised for the completion of Phase A1,” said Mr McCormick.

He further revealed that as they noted the unique transformation of the Zimbabwean economy, with the increase of input being made by the informal sector and calls from the sector itself they had slightly adjusted their initial outlook to allocate more space to  informal traders.

“From my side the completion of this phase, is what I want to get going, because this has been fundamentally a bus terminus, taxi terminus, the nexus for a lot of Zimbabweans into and out of South Africa, come through this rank, so by getting it going, you bring the energy back.

Then we bring the overseas Zimbabwean economy retail side of things which is very much an informally driven kind of economy by building 1 200 hawker stalls and it really speaks to the unique way in which we have adjusted from how this project took off, it was a very different from the picture and now there is going to be much bigger amount of space allocated to the informal traders, we are going to see that quickly once the taxi ranks are done,” said Mr McCormick.

He said he was confident that with the financial injection that they were putting in the project was going to meet all the set timelines with various steelworks already arriving on site from South Africa.

“In any difficult times, and any difficult economy, people want to see projects that can give them hope and belief, such projects create hope, people’s manifestation of beliefs and an investment into their economy and so we do understand that people have been confused as to why the delays, we are here with our partners from Terracotta, we are here and we are still committed.

“We remain committed and if anyone really doubts our capabilities they can double check, they can go and check our Exemplar REITail, JSE listed company, and see the results that we have 7,5 billion rands worth of assets and 35 percent loan to value, we are fairly liquid and in a good position to finish this,” said Mr McCormick.

Meanwhile, the developer has revealed that they had an overwhelming response to their call for bricklayers and general hands as they work on completing the superstructure at the fastest possible time.

Terracotta director, Mr Thulani Moyo said they were now testing the bricklayers as per the normal industry requirements before they engage the qualifying candidates.

“We had a total of 150 bricklayers coming through to our contact centre, more are still coming but we cannot just employ everyone, we have a due diligence which we have to adhere to like testing them and also requiring a police clearance, what I should emphasise is our preference of people from this region so as to help boost our employment levels and also the region’s economic outlook,” said Mr Moyo.