Council stalls Crowborough Waste Water Treatment Plant rehab

HARARE City Council has suspended the long-awaited and desperately needed rehabilitation and expansion of Crowborough Waste Water Treatment Plant, which treats the sewage from north-west and western Harare because it does not have the money to do so.

Director for Water Engineer Mabhena Moyo confirmed that work has stopped after the council ran out of money.

“We received some money from the Government, but it was not enough. About US$60 million is needed for full rehabilitation and expansion of the waste water plant” he said.

Rehabilitating the plant will double its capacity to 120 mega-litres a day to cope with population expansion in the 30 years since it was converted to a modern works.

Eng Mabhena said in the meantime, partially treated sewage effluent was being deposited at the city council’s farm where cattle graze.

“What we do is we have a holding point at the treatment plant which we pump in to the farms where there are cattle pastures, where they grow grass. The water is filtered and then self-purifies on the ground and goes back to the treatment plant.”

Harare Mayor Councillor Herbert Gomba said council had plans to expand the capacity of the plant. “We are working on expanding the site’s capacity, with pipes coming from Ruzivo stream crossing to the Crowborough Waste Water Treatment Plant.”

Going into the rainy season with flawed waste water management poses a great threat to the public at large considering that the country has not yet fully recovered from the intermittent outbreaks of cholera and typhoid in the last 18 months.

Senior Court Reporter

FORMER Zimbabwe Football Association ( Zifa) president and businessman Philip Chiyangwa’s two sons — Edmund and Brian — are facing an $ 800 000 lawsuit for failing to settle a debt from Getbucks Microfinance Bank Limited.

The brothers risk losing their upmarket Grange property in Harare which was registered as surety for the loan.

Getbucks is suing Edmund and Brian together with their companies World Grain ( Pvt) Limited and Padley Enterprises ( Pvt) Limited.

In court papers, Getbucks claims that through a written agreement on February 26, 2019, they extended $ 600 000 to World Grain ( Pvt) Limited.

The two brothers stood as sureties and co- principal debtors.

“Edmund and Brian undertook to pay legal practitioners’ collection commission and legal costs on the legal practitioner and client scale and they also renounced the benefits of division,” read the summons.

“Part of the agreement was that interest would accrue at the rate of four percent per month and a penalty rate of 15 percent per annum would be levied in the event of default.

Getbucks says, in breach of the loan agreement, World Grain ( Pvt) Limited failed to pay the principal and interest on the loan on the due dates, resulting in arrears of $ 846 041, 52 accruing as of November 7, 2019.

The micro- finance company also said the defendants undertook to settle the balance by October 31, 2019 but have failed to do so.

The f i nancial i nstitution i s now demanding an order for the payment of $ 846 041, 52 together with interest at the rate of 87 percent from November 8 to the date of full and final payment.

It is also s e e k i ng an order for the property that was pledged as surety to be declared executable, so that it can be sold to offset the debts.