New Harare-Beitbridge Highway will not last, says Coltart

Bulawayo Mayor David Coltart has alleged that construction companies linked to politically connected individuals took shortcuts during the construction of the Harare-Beitbridge Highway, claims that have been strongly rejected by the Ministry of Roads and Infrastructural Development.

Coltart, speaking during a plenary discussion at the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) at the University of Pretoria in South Africa, called for an independent audit of the multi-million-dollar project, arguing that the quality and durability of sections of the 582-kilometre highway may have been compromised.

The Harare-Beitbridge Highway, one of Zimbabwe's flagship infrastructure projects, is reported to be about 84 percent complete.

During a discussion on corruption and governance in Zimbabwe, Coltart alleged that four of the five contractors working on the project failed to adhere to required construction standards.

He claimed that while contractors were expected to use granite chips in road construction, some allegedly mixed sand with the granite material, resulting in sections of the highway already showing signs of deterioration.

"If you drive on those parts of the road, it looks good but they are starting to deteriorate. The part of the road constructed by the company which used granite chips correctly is good," Coltart said.

He linked the allegations to broader concerns about corruption and what he described as growing state capture in Zimbabwe.

The companies contracted to work on various sections of the highway include Bitumen World, Masimba Holdings, Tensor Systems, Exodus and Company, and Fossil Contracting.

Coltart's comments come amid ongoing public debate over differences in the quality of road surfaces, markings and signage along different sections of the route.

However, the Ministry of Roads and Infrastructural Development dismissed the allegations, insisting that the claimed substitution of construction materials would have been detected through mandatory quality assurance procedures.

Deputy Director of Roads Construction Engineer Virginia Mawere said the allegations were technically implausible given the testing regimes applied to road construction projects.

"The allegation is technically implausible. Granite chips and sand perform entirely different structural roles in bituminous pavement and are not interchangeable," Mawere said.

"Any such substitution would have produced immediately detectable failures in Marshall Stability testing, mix design approval, and bitumen extraction tests, all of which were contractually mandated at production and post-lay stages."

She added that such a substitution could not have passed the prescribed testing processes undetected.

Mawere said the ministry remained committed to ensuring compliance with engineering standards and invited anyone with evidence of irregularities to submit it formally.

"The ministry does not accept characterisations made without reference to specific test certificates, contract sections, or verifiable site data. Any party holding such evidence is invited to submit it formally to the Permanent Secretary," she said.

She also revealed that the ministry intends to commission an independent technical assessment of selected highways to further verify compliance with required standards.

Masimba Holdings also dismissed the allegations.

The company's marketing executive, Itai Magande, said Coltart's claims were unsupported by evidence.

"It is Coltart's view and there is no evidence to support the allegations on the ground," said Magande.

Tensor Systems co-director Engineer Ngonidzashe Musowe declined to comment directly on the allegations, referring all inquiries to the ministry.

"The Ministry of Transport inspects all works done by contractors on major government roads. As contractors we are not allowed to comment to the media," Musowe said.

Efforts to obtain comment from Bitumen World, Exodus and Company, and Fossil Contracting were unsuccessful.

Coltart maintained that an independent audit would help establish public confidence in major public infrastructure projects.

"I do believe that there needs to be independent audits of nearly all government tenders including the construction of the Beitbridge Border Post, the Beitbridge-Harare road, the Trabablas Interchange and ZEC 2023 election procurement exercise, amongst others," he said.

The Harare-Beitbridge Highway is a critical transport corridor linking Zimbabwe to South Africa and the wider Southern African region. Its reconstruction has been one of the government's flagship infrastructure programmes aimed at improving regional trade and transport efficiency.