Bulawayo's $400 million Parliament building hopes dashed

Movement for Democratic Change leader Welshman Ncube's attempt to bring parliament to Bulawayo has hit a brick wall as cabinet has approved Mt Hampden as the suitable site for the construction of a new Parliament Building at an estimated cost of US$400 million.

Ncube had earlier this year tabled a proposal to have the planned new Parliament built in Bulawayo to the Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs minister Eric Matinenga.

Ncube believed this would help spur development in the country's second biggest city.

Ncube said he believed it would make sense to set up the new structure in Bulawayo.

"We submitted our documents to the Minister of Constitutional Affairs and I said I would also make time to meet him," he said at the beginning of the year.

Ncube underscored benefits of moving Parliament to Bulawayo, saying the arrangement had succeeded elsewhere in the region.

However, the Chairman of the inter-ministerial committee tasked by government to identify a new site for the construction of a new Parliament Building, Dr Ignatius Chombo today said they have completed the task of finding an alternative area to the Harare Kopje which was suggested earlier.

"We made our presentation to cabinet and they agreed that Mt Hampden should house our new Parliament Building," said Dr Chombo.

Dr Chombo said this marks the beginning of a new concept of the development of a satellite town where urban development is now directed towards the periphery.

After hosting legislators for more than 112 years, Zimbabwe's Parliament Building in central Harare will soon be replaced at Mt Hampden.

The existing six-storey Parliament Building was built in 1895 as a hotel to serve white settlers.

Situated about 100 meters from the point where the Union flag was hoisted by Cecil John Rhodes' imperialist invading force on September 13, 1890, it was converted into a parliament building three years later.