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Thupeyo Muleya Beitbridge Bureau—
THE government yesterday took over ownership and operations of the New Limpopo Bridge following the expiry of the 20-year Built Operate and Transfer (BOT) agreement with the New Limpopo Bridge (Ltd), a company that constructed the bridge in 1994. The handover-takeover ceremony was held at the duty free shop on the Zimbabwean border and witnessed by South Africa’s transport minister Dipuo Peters and top civil servants from both governments.
In his address Transport and Infrastructural Development Minister Dr Obert Mpofu said the Zimbabwe National Roads Administration (Zinara) has been tasked to take over collection of about $1,6 million tolling revenue per month at the bridge with immediate effect.
He said the government would retain most of the NLB staff at the border post. Minister Mpofu said officials from both governments had been tasked with coming up with a memorandum of understanding over the operations of the bridge by the end of September this year.
The Zimbabwe transport secretary Munesu Munodawafa signed the transfer documents on behalf of the government while Thomas Proustow represented NLB (Ltd) shareholders.
“The New Limpopo Bridge is the first major infrastructure project in Zimbabwe undertaken by the private sector under BOT.
“The handover of this project is therefore testimony that private-public -partnerships work and should be seriously considered as an alternative way of financing infrastructure development in the region,” said Dr Mpofu.
He said revenue realised from the toll fees at Beitbridge will be channelled towards the Beitbridge Bridge Fund (BBF) for use in upgrading the border post and various key infrastructure in the border town.
Dr Mpofu said South Africa will have a similar arrangement where the money will be used in developing their trade corridor and Musina town.
He said the government was working on a host of measures that will help decongest traffic at Beitbridge Border Post. His South African counterpart Peters said; “Private public partnerships are an option for financing the infrastructure we need and boost the economic growth of our countries without direct utilisation of government finance, which are needed to meet other pressing social demands”.
She said apart from mobilising domestic private sector capital for infrastructure development, BOT arrangements offered opportunities to foreign investors, which in turn creates foreign exchange needed for economic growth.
NLB shareholders’ representatives Thomas Proustow said since the introduction of multi-currency system in 2009, the government of Zimbabwe had received $30 million from them in toll fees. He said a total of 10 million vehicles had passed through Beitbridge border post since 1994.
Beitbridge Border Post is one of the busiest ports of entry in Southern Africa where an average of 8,000 travellers pass through the border per day and the number increases to around 20,000 during peak periods.
Further a total of 2,100 buses, 14,000 to 15,000 haulage trucks and 25,000 private cars pass through the border every month.
Online Reporter