via Furore over $144m Harare water deal – DailyNews Live by Wendy Muperi 24 SEPTEMBER 2013
Harare residents groups have described the $144 million water deal as a dodgy development meant to benefit Town House managers and the Chinese government.
Precious Shumba, the Harare Residents Trust director, accused the town clerk Tendai Mahachi of keeping ratepayers in the dark about the funds extended by the Chinese Export and Import Bank for improving water delivery.
“The HRT wishes to express outrage at the arrogant attitude being displayed by Mahachi who has demonstrated reluctance to reveal the details of the deal,” Shumba said.
“Residents do not know the rate of interest the loan will accrue, and the repayment period.
“The Chinese experts will gobble a bigger chunk of the money, meaning the Chinese have created their own employment at the expense of Harare residents.
“Let this deal be revealed in full and residents must have copies of this loan agreement in order to educate each other on how they will repay it.
“Everything around the deal is being hurried before the elected councillors gain control of the council’s affairs, meaning that the town clerk is desperate to speed up engagement of people and make certain significant decisions in the absence of elected councillors, who will find it extremely difficult to reverse bad decisions.”
According to Mahachi, out of the expected 46-member Chinese team, 19 engineers are already in the country to partner the local authority’s technical team at the Morton Jaffray, Warren Control, Alex Park and Letombo pump station.
Shumba said Harare city should have taken advantage of locally available expertise if it was committed to transparency and accountability throughout the four-year project.
“Zimbabwe’s tertiary institutions have churned out competent engineers and other technocrats to handle any technology,” he said.
“The suspicions that we have are that the council management handling this deal are afraid of being exposed if locals handle the equipment and other technical areas of the project, so they trust that the Chinese nationals being brought in to work on this project will keep silent.”
Tendai Muchada, the Combined Harare Residents Trust (Chra) programmes manager, said the deal was murky.
“When this decision to engage the engineers was made, this was at a time council was under the caretaker commission led by Alfred Tome, which means that there were no elected councillors to provide checks and balances to the whole deal,” Muchada said.
“It also contravenes the mantra that we have the highest literacy rate in Africa and poses as an insult to the thousands of engineers we have in Zimbabwe. This also means that the money in itself is meant to benefit the Chinese and not us Zimbabweans in any way.
“The City of Harare cannot insult us to say that the local people will provide labour at Morton Jaffery being guided by the Chinese, especially with their history of workplace abuse. We are slowly turning into a Chinese colony under the guise of aid.”
Harare paid a stipulated 10 percent pre-implementation fund. Residents’ representatives called on councillors to demand answers.
COMMENTS
Sure u tell me that our engineers in Zimbabwe can’t fix a simple pipe that was put in the 60’s by Ian Smith…saka vanhu vari kudzidziswei kuUZ neku NUST
Well done good people for standing up to these corrupt officials at the expense of our people. Transparency is what we need. Was this projects advertised locally and internationally? Why the Chinese ?
We are there competent civil and water engineers and Technicians but who can stay in Zimbabwe to be paid peanuts like a monkey, to struggle for transport to and fro work on pot holed roads,to struggle to put food on the table, to struggle to pay fees for the kids in under-resourced schools,to go hospitals where you are asked to bring your own doctor,nurse, medicine,bandages,food, bedding, water, and lighting; to go home only to sit in darkness due to load shedding, to pay bribes to the police who do not respect their own constitution , to be insulted by arogant ZANU PF chefs and expected to shut up, to witness shameful election fraud and be forced not only to accept but celebrate, to watch a tv channel presented by some starving presenters who have not been paid since Biti left but fear to say it on the same tv.Only a foolish Engineer like Mzembi will stay for that and what does a foolish Engineer deliver? A foolish system that does not work and surely the current government of Zimbabwe deserves that.Zim Engineers outside Zimbabwe are happily rewarded,average $5000 take home, company accomodation and food, fees for the kids paid, company car 24hrs no cost,4 flights to and fro per year to any destination of choice saka touya kuZim kuzotsvakeyi?Regayi ma China maprisoners ashande.Knowing Chinese they will install the cheapest of materials and apply the most unorthordox methods in Engineering ill treat all local workers and also finish the dogs. The only reason why Zim officials are sticking to China is not that look West propaganda, the fact is chinese people believe so much in bribery for any deal to be signed they are so generous towards all the officials concerned its an Asian culture one does not even need to demand the bribe,Mahachi tiudze wakapiwa marii bharanzi?
Ana Muchatiguta, since when did dhodha bins become engineers? Yu sound like an engineer chaiye asi! Mhanya navo ma bin vakanyarara, engineer wema bin. Dai pari padare vaindovhiyiswa mbudzi yenyama yevadare, varume chaivo vachitonga nyaya. Kuenda out of topic pachena pakadai? Unoshamisa! Ndiwe engineer (sorry dhodha bin) vekutanga nekupedzisira muZimbabwe here? Akakuudza kuti vose vakaenda kundodhodha bin kuSouth ndiyani? Chiuya pa xmas pacho unwe sewage “porridge” water uone kuti urifuza saChinamasa. People are trying to find solutions to Zimbabwe crises, kumba kwako, kuna mai nababa vako, kune rukuvhute rwako and you want to sound like an Afrikaaner simply bcoz unogeza maToilet emaAfrikaaner. Usatishatirisa mangwanani akadai mhani! Kura, wanzwa!
I did not read the rest of the rubbish that you said because une degree rekuwawata sha.At least you said one positive thing that i sound like an Engineer chaiye apo unenge wakazarurirwa chaizvo.Saka urikuchemeyi asi urimowo mumabribery arikubva kuma China.You really sound so silly and assume that every Zimbo who is outside is in SA you seem to have beef nemabhunu asi vakakunongesa marara muJoza here waita zvetsika yako yekuZim yekurasira pese pese?Vanahwindi mukaguta makuru nemugayiwa munonetsa uchasara wakadaro uchinwa weti dzanaChinamasa.Saka maChina vakauya here kuzogadzira zvinhu kune rukuvhute rwavo.You sound kunge wakafunda but pane padzakati tsveyame mbichana, hausi aya anoenda mudondo uri mhengera muofisi inotambika sorry.