News / National
Trabablas immortalised?
31 May 2025 at 14:25hrs | Views
Yesterday, President Emmerson Mnangagwa officially inaugurated the Trabablas Interchange, a flagship US$88 million infrastructure project designed to transform north-south traffic flow in Harare by replacing the long-troubled Mbudzi roundabout. While the new interchange promises to ease congestion and reshape the city's skyline, critics warn that its cost and funding model pose serious challenges for Zimbabwe's future generations.
The project, delivered by a local consortium known as Tefoma - comprising Tensor Systems, Fossil Contracting, and Masimba Construction - is being hailed as one of the first major infrastructure works completed entirely without foreign contractor involvement. This milestone should be celebrated as a sign of local capacity building.
However, behind the fanfare lies a sobering reality: the US$88 million price tag is widely seen as inflated, adding significantly to Zimbabwe's already swollen sovereign debt, now standing at an alarming US$21.7 billion. According to Treasury data, Zimbabwe's national debt nearly doubled from US$12.8 billion before the 2017 political transition that brought Mnangagwa to power.
The Trabablas Interchange, dubbed after one of Mnangagwa's many nicknames, marks a symbolic immortalisation of the President's name — but at what cost? Construction analysts argue that similar or larger projects in regional neighbors such as Botswana and South Africa have been completed at a fraction of Zimbabwe's expenditure, sometimes less than a quarter of the price.
The US$88 million project was financed through domestic borrowing with repayments expected in foreign currency, a burden that Zimbabwean taxpayers will shoulder over the next decade amid mounting fiscal pressures.
The timing of the inauguration raised eyebrows as Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube was simultaneously in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, negotiating with the African Development Bank (AfDB) for a debt clearance package under the bank's Structured Dialogue Programme. The AfDB highlighted its efforts to mobilize funding to help Zimbabwe address its arrears and debt obligations.
This juxtaposition paints a stark picture of a country simultaneously begging for external debt relief while celebrating a costly "locally-funded" project — a contradiction not lost on observers.
Adding to the financial conundrum, Ncube recently announced an ambitious plan to raise US$15 billion through granting title deeds to resettled farmers, despite the global compensation amount for dispossessed commercial farmers being estimated at just US$3.5 billion.
Why then is Zimbabwe struggling to manage its debt without international assistance? Experts cite poor procurement practices, inflated invoices, lack of due diligence in contract awards, absence of competitive public tenders, and frequent advance payments to contractors who fail to deliver as root causes.
Clever Ruswa, Chief Executive of the Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe, revealed that US$19 billion has been spent on procurement since 2018, yet tangible results remain elusive. Billions have been wasted on emergency road works, COVID-19 vaccines, vehicle purchases, the Presidential Goat Scheme, and luxury villas for the 2024 SADC Heads of State Summit that remain incomplete nearly a year later.
Further scandal includes the inflated US$1.5 billion payout to private investors who cashed out their shares in the Mutapa Investment Fund-controlled Kuvimba Mining House, highlighting systemic corruption in public finance management under the so-called "second republic."
For ordinary Zimbabweans, this mismanagement translates into an ever-growing debt burden, economic instability, and eroded social services. Many will never benefit directly from developments like the Trabablas Interchange, yet they bear the cost through taxes and diminished public resources.
Calls are growing louder for a forensic audit of Zimbabwe's sovereign debt to uncover hidden liabilities and hold accountable those benefiting from opaque government contracts. Transparency advocates also urge Parliament to assert its oversight role, resist being a rubber stamp for costly Executive decisions, and challenge wasteful spending and corruption.
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Debt Assumption Bill of 2015, which converted private debts of resettled farmers into public debt, remains a glaring example of "socialism for the politically connected" while ordinary citizens struggle to make ends meet.
Trabablas Interchange may stand as a symbol of modern infrastructure, but for many Zimbabweans it epitomizes widening inequality — a luxury that enriches the few while increasing the fiscal strain on the many.
As the glittering interchange hums with luxury vehicles and freight trucks, the vast majority of Zimbabweans living nearby will watch from the sidelines, paying a heavy price for a development they may never truly access.
The project, delivered by a local consortium known as Tefoma - comprising Tensor Systems, Fossil Contracting, and Masimba Construction - is being hailed as one of the first major infrastructure works completed entirely without foreign contractor involvement. This milestone should be celebrated as a sign of local capacity building.
However, behind the fanfare lies a sobering reality: the US$88 million price tag is widely seen as inflated, adding significantly to Zimbabwe's already swollen sovereign debt, now standing at an alarming US$21.7 billion. According to Treasury data, Zimbabwe's national debt nearly doubled from US$12.8 billion before the 2017 political transition that brought Mnangagwa to power.
The Trabablas Interchange, dubbed after one of Mnangagwa's many nicknames, marks a symbolic immortalisation of the President's name — but at what cost? Construction analysts argue that similar or larger projects in regional neighbors such as Botswana and South Africa have been completed at a fraction of Zimbabwe's expenditure, sometimes less than a quarter of the price.
The US$88 million project was financed through domestic borrowing with repayments expected in foreign currency, a burden that Zimbabwean taxpayers will shoulder over the next decade amid mounting fiscal pressures.
The timing of the inauguration raised eyebrows as Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube was simultaneously in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, negotiating with the African Development Bank (AfDB) for a debt clearance package under the bank's Structured Dialogue Programme. The AfDB highlighted its efforts to mobilize funding to help Zimbabwe address its arrears and debt obligations.
This juxtaposition paints a stark picture of a country simultaneously begging for external debt relief while celebrating a costly "locally-funded" project — a contradiction not lost on observers.
Adding to the financial conundrum, Ncube recently announced an ambitious plan to raise US$15 billion through granting title deeds to resettled farmers, despite the global compensation amount for dispossessed commercial farmers being estimated at just US$3.5 billion.
Why then is Zimbabwe struggling to manage its debt without international assistance? Experts cite poor procurement practices, inflated invoices, lack of due diligence in contract awards, absence of competitive public tenders, and frequent advance payments to contractors who fail to deliver as root causes.
Clever Ruswa, Chief Executive of the Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe, revealed that US$19 billion has been spent on procurement since 2018, yet tangible results remain elusive. Billions have been wasted on emergency road works, COVID-19 vaccines, vehicle purchases, the Presidential Goat Scheme, and luxury villas for the 2024 SADC Heads of State Summit that remain incomplete nearly a year later.
Further scandal includes the inflated US$1.5 billion payout to private investors who cashed out their shares in the Mutapa Investment Fund-controlled Kuvimba Mining House, highlighting systemic corruption in public finance management under the so-called "second republic."
For ordinary Zimbabweans, this mismanagement translates into an ever-growing debt burden, economic instability, and eroded social services. Many will never benefit directly from developments like the Trabablas Interchange, yet they bear the cost through taxes and diminished public resources.
Calls are growing louder for a forensic audit of Zimbabwe's sovereign debt to uncover hidden liabilities and hold accountable those benefiting from opaque government contracts. Transparency advocates also urge Parliament to assert its oversight role, resist being a rubber stamp for costly Executive decisions, and challenge wasteful spending and corruption.
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Debt Assumption Bill of 2015, which converted private debts of resettled farmers into public debt, remains a glaring example of "socialism for the politically connected" while ordinary citizens struggle to make ends meet.
Trabablas Interchange may stand as a symbol of modern infrastructure, but for many Zimbabweans it epitomizes widening inequality — a luxury that enriches the few while increasing the fiscal strain on the many.
As the glittering interchange hums with luxury vehicles and freight trucks, the vast majority of Zimbabweans living nearby will watch from the sidelines, paying a heavy price for a development they may never truly access.
Source - NewsDay
