Nguwaya taking over waste management in all towns, cities

Geo Pomona Waste Management, the company controversially contracted by the government to manage Harare's refuse, is now expanding operations to all provinces of Zimbabwe - without entering agreements with other local authorities.

Speaking from Belarus after signing a Memorandum of Understanding with the Belarusian government, Geo Pomona executive chairman and CEO Dilesh Nguwaya revealed that the company plans to manage waste collection across the country.

"Geo Pomona has gone a step up because we want to replicate what we are doing in Harare to all the other nine provinces where we are going to deal with all the refuse waste collection," Nguwaya said. "We're going to collect the whole area, and we are going to manage all the waste remaining in the country."

Nguwaya confirmed that under the opaque government-backed arrangement, Geo Pomona has "secured trucks, equipment, and water treatment plants" from Belarus, though the financial details of the deal have not been publicly disclosed.

The announcement is likely to rattle many local councils, some of which have had no contact with Geo Pomona and were unaware of any such plan to assume control over their waste management responsibilities.

Nguwaya claims the company is acting under "cabinet authority" granted in 2022, implying that its expansion will not be subjected to competitive tendering processes—a repeat of the controversial circumstances under which Geo Pomona was installed in Harare.

The original 30-year deal, imposed on Harare by the Ministry of Local Government, tasked Geo Pomona with managing the Pomona dumpsite and building a waste-to-energy facility. The company began charging the city US$40 per tonne of waste, a bill Harare said it could not afford.

Government stepped in, covering the charges through Harare's devolution fund allocation. Under the contract, the city was required to deliver 550 tonnes of waste per day in the first year, a figure expected to rise annually to 1,000 tonnes by 2027—translating to over US$14.6 million per year in payments to Geo Pomona until 2052.

The total cost of the Harare deal was pegged at US$320 million, with Geo Pomona acting as a local partner to Netherlands-registered Geogenix BV, a company fronted by Albanian businessman Mirel Mërtiri, who has been linked to corruption investigations in his home country.

Harare's inability to meet its daily tonnage obligations due to a shortage of refuse trucks and fuel has resulted in Geo Pomona moving to take over the entire refuse chain, including street sweeping, waste collection, and dumping.

The planned national rollout - without clear agreements or consultations with other local authorities - raises concerns about transparency, local governance autonomy, and potential cost implications for ratepayers across Zimbabwe.

Critics have previously condemned the Harare deal as a "state-sanctioned monopoly," warning that unchecked expansion could saddle municipalities with long-term financial obligations they neither negotiated nor approved.

Yet, even among detractors, some acknowledge that conditions at the Pomona dumpsite have visibly improved under Geo Pomona's management, ending years of hazardous fires started by informal waste pickers.

Nguwaya, known for his close ties to the political elite—including Sean Mnangagwa, one of President Emmerson Mnangagwa's twin sons—has previously faced corruption allegations related to Covid-19 procurement contracts through his company Drax International. He was later acquitted.

Now, with government-brokered support and backing from Belarus, Nguwaya and Geo Pomona are positioning themselves as the central players in Zimbabwe's waste management sector - despite lingering questions over legality, financial transparency, and local authority consent.

If the country-wide rollout proceeds under similar terms to the Harare deal, Geo Pomona and its parent company Geogenix could potentially secure contracts valued at over US$1 billion.