Egodini project to be cancelled

THE much hyped project to rehabilitate Basch Street Terminus commonly known as Egodini and turn it into a regional public transport hub and shopping mall, hangs in the balance after Bulawayo councillors tabled a motion to cancel the tender.

The tender for the project was won by South African civil engineering firm Terraccotta Private Limited, but has gotten off to a number of false starts which has seen the project failing to commence close to five years after it was approved.

Terraccotta won the tender ahead of two other local companies to upgrade the terminus, a project that is expected to gobble close to $60 million.

In the latest development, Ward 16 Councillor, Nephat Sibanda moved a motion to the chamber secretary Mrs Sikhangele Zhou imploring the local authority to cancel the tender due to failure by the contractor to implement the project on time.

In his motion, Clr Sibanda claims Terraccotta does not have the capacity hence they should lose the tender.

"When the Egodini contract was awarded it was met with mixed feelings by the Bulawayo community. Some welcomed the development because it brought employment opportunities. As for me personally I was hoping to leave a legacy by having this project taking place during my term in office.

"We were also accused by the Government and sections of the Bulawayo community of awarding the contract corruptly, allegations that we denied.

When I think of all this and the failure of this project to take off, it hurts me and I feel that perhaps the company awarded does not have the capacity in terms of finance and is using this contract for speculative purposes.

"We cannot allow Bulawayo to be held back in terms of development any longer. I therefore propose that the decision of council be reconsidered with a view of cancelling the Egodini development contract for failure to implement the project in time," reads part of the motion.

The motion, which was filed last month, has reportedly gone through all council procedures in terms of submitting motions and is now expected to be debated during a full council meeting set for the council chambers on Wednesday.

"It will be interesting because council staffers are defending the contractor saying as far as they are concerned they are within the projected dates but a section of councillors want the tender cancelled. Since councillors are the final decision making body we shall have to wait until Wednesday to see what transpires. For now I know councillors will be caucusing so that they speak in one voice. What makes this issue so complicated is that the contractor is not saying anything, they are just holed up in South Africa instead of being on the ground starting work," said a council source.

A Terraccotta official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said they were not worried claiming as far as they were concerned everything was above board.

"We don't deal with councillors but with council management directly and management knows that everything is in place," said the official.

The initial tender for the re-development of the terminus was advertised and closed on 25 June 2012, the compulsory tender briefing was held on 5 July with 14 companies attending.

The pre-adjudication inter-departmental meeting was held on 11 September to consider the submissions, where Terraccotta was awarded the tender.

The company was also awarded with a 99-year lease to the terminus. Past projects that have been done by the company include Edendale Shopping Mall in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu Natal, Chris Hani crossing taxi facility in Gauteng and the Tsakane Mall Taxi rank again Gauteng.