Moving House
Zimbabwe to get new state-of-the-art parliament building and new city to decongest Harare
For years, Zimbabwean legislators have had to contend with sitting in a cramped parliamentary building, often complaining that the space is small and suffocating. The Zimbabwe parliament building is a 1920s-era former hotel from colonial times, which has been expanded several times over the years to accommodate the growing number of parliamentarians.
The seating capacity of the building accommodates 150; however the number of parliamentarians has grown to 370.
“It’s a catch-22 situation, the building has just become [too] small,” said clerk of Parliament Kennedy Chokuda.
In addition, the government is paying $17,000 per sitting of parliament to cater for traveling parliamentarians’ food and accommodation bills.
“Over the years, the government has had to cope with booking members of parliament (MPS) into local hotels. It is expensive, but it has to be done,” said Chokuda.
Now, thanks to China’s involvement in the construction of a new parliament building, accommodation and space problems for MPS will be a thing of the past about three years down the line. The new building, which is to be located on farmland west of the capital Harare, in the area of Mount Hampden, will have a total floor area of 33,000 square meters. Construction is expected to take about 32 months to complete and was officially launched when Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa broke first ground on November 30 last year.
Zhao Baogang, Chargé d’affaires of the Chinese Embassy in Zimbabwe, said the new building is the largest single project carried out by China in Africa for some time.
“The new Zimbabwean parliament building is the largest project in recent years aided by the Chinese Government in a single country in Africa,” he said, adding that the building will include a six-story office block, two congress halls and other facilities.
The $98.97-million project will be spearheaded by the Shanghai Construction Group.
“For 10 consecutive years, it has been listed as one of the top 30 Chinese construction enterprises in China,” said Zhao, who believes the new building will advance parliamentary work in Zimbabwe.
“I strongly believe that upon completion, it will help greatly enhance the working condition of the Zimbabwe Parliament. The