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Only Zanu-PF supports will be given Harare-Beitbridge highway contracts
30 Apr 2017 at 14:01hrs | Views
Masvingo Provincial Affairs minister Shuvai Mahofa has said only Zanu-PF supporters will be favoured in contract awarding for the construction of the Harare-Beitbridge highway.
The call for domestic party preference in the public procurement process for the project was tabled during a recent Zanu-PF Masvingo provincial coordinating committee (PCC) meeting held at Victoria Primary School.
According to Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa, the project must start in Masvingo near Chaka Growth Point in the first week of May under an agreement with the Austrian contractor Geiger International.
"Recruitment of general labourers should be done through local Zanu-PF leadership, we need to screen and take our people only," Mahofa said.
"District chairpersons should have lists of party cadres so that when the programme starts, you are ready with the names of our youths.
"This is what we agreed as the leadership of the province."
The highway is Zimbabwe's busiest and most economically significant, and is part of the North-South Corridor that directly links landlocked Zimbabwe and Zambia.
The project is expected to take up to two years.
Transport minister Jorum Gumbo told the Senate earlier this month that the entire Beitbridge-Chirundu project will cost $2,1billion.
"It is a main artery road which is very valid in our economic situation. As a result, we have divided the development project into six sectors and each sector will be given 100 kilometres long to work on that road. Because, we feel that if we give many companies, each one of them will be responsible for a particular potion, we can complete this job within two years," he said.
China Harbour Engineering Company Ltd (CHEC), a subsidiary of China Communications Construction Co Ltd, will partner Austria's Geiger International to upgrade and add more lanes to the 900 km highway from Beitbridge on the border with South Africa to Chirundu on the Zambian border.
Gumbo said the cash-strapped government has had to borrow money from outside to bankroll the almost $1bn deal.
The call for domestic party preference in the public procurement process for the project was tabled during a recent Zanu-PF Masvingo provincial coordinating committee (PCC) meeting held at Victoria Primary School.
According to Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa, the project must start in Masvingo near Chaka Growth Point in the first week of May under an agreement with the Austrian contractor Geiger International.
"Recruitment of general labourers should be done through local Zanu-PF leadership, we need to screen and take our people only," Mahofa said.
"District chairpersons should have lists of party cadres so that when the programme starts, you are ready with the names of our youths.
"This is what we agreed as the leadership of the province."
The highway is Zimbabwe's busiest and most economically significant, and is part of the North-South Corridor that directly links landlocked Zimbabwe and Zambia.
The project is expected to take up to two years.
Transport minister Jorum Gumbo told the Senate earlier this month that the entire Beitbridge-Chirundu project will cost $2,1billion.
"It is a main artery road which is very valid in our economic situation. As a result, we have divided the development project into six sectors and each sector will be given 100 kilometres long to work on that road. Because, we feel that if we give many companies, each one of them will be responsible for a particular potion, we can complete this job within two years," he said.
China Harbour Engineering Company Ltd (CHEC), a subsidiary of China Communications Construction Co Ltd, will partner Austria's Geiger International to upgrade and add more lanes to the 900 km highway from Beitbridge on the border with South Africa to Chirundu on the Zambian border.
Gumbo said the cash-strapped government has had to borrow money from outside to bankroll the almost $1bn deal.
Source - dailynews
