Here's who won Zimbabwe govt's biggest road tenders

The Ministry of Transport handed out millions of dollars' worth of contracts for roadworks in the first quarter of the year. Here are some of the biggest winners.

Top of the pile? Fossil

Fossil Contracting landed a US$363 million contract to work on the Harare-Chirundu highway, the biggest single award in the quarter. The company was part of the Tefoma consortium that built the new traffic interchange in Harare, and also handled major roads ahead of the SADC summit last year.

Last year, the government announced it had awarded a contract to fix the Chirundu border post to Zimborders, the consortium which also upgraded Beitbridge.

Gokwe: Independence in the mud

The muddy scenes at this year's Independence celebrations in Gokwe brought some contracts into the spotlight. According to the Ministry of Transport, Syndicated Resources got nearly US$1 million to fix up the venue at Gokwe's Nembudziya for the event. Duoflex got US$2.9 million for road maintenance in the same area. Zada Construction was awarded US$590,000 to fix 2km of road in Gokwe's Siyabuwa.

Other notable awards

Zada Construction also picked up bigger contracts elsewhere; US$10.3 million for the Murehwa-Madacheche Road and US$4.9 million for Saint Guthrie Road, which links the Mutare-Masvingo and Mutare-Vumba roads. Sensa Capital was awarded US$5.8 million for Headlands-Mayo Road.

Old faces in the mix

The more familiar players are still getting a slice. Bitumen World got a US$1.8 million contract for Mutare-Juliasdale road, and another US$2.1 million for roads in Rushinga. JR Goddard was awarded a US$8.2 million project for the Murambinda-Mudanda road.

Copy-paste or coincidence?

One curious thing: Falna Trading is listed as winning a tender for US$8,531,298 to supply IT equipment. But the exact same amount is also listed for Road Trackers to do roadworks in Zvishavane. That's not the only duplicate. A sum of US$1,522,543.20 appears twice - once as an IT tender for Netconnect, and again for roadworks in Rutenga by Derivative Resources.

How are they paid

Doing business with government is lucrative, but it is also often risky business. Payments – a portion of which is paid in ZiG – are often delayed. Major player Masimba Holdings has taken a step back from doing work for government. In Parliament in April, Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube said he had paid US$15 million to road contractors to pay just part of what they were owed. He said: "We are asking them to do more, to take on more work, while we settle the arrears."