Mbudzi interchange: 46 property owners accept compensation awards
SO far, at least 46 of the 51 owners of industrial, commercial and residential properties that must be demolished to make way for the Mbudzi interchange in Harare have accepted their compensation awards and the last five should be sorted out very soon, with the money now being processed and paid.
The interchange replacing the old Mbudzi roundabout, with its 14 bridges and bridge-like structures, plus the leftturn slip roads will occupy far more land than the old inadequate roundabout so the nearby private property had to be bought out.
This is allowed under laws stretching back many decades, with the property owners guaranteed full compensation based on the actual market value of the acquired property when it was being used before the interchange was announced.
This means that the property owners cannot be given reduced compensation because the land is no longer producing revenue, nor can they charge a premium for scarce land needed for road works, but can claim what their property was worth when used for commerce, industry or as a residence.
The Government followed the laid down procedure by bringing in three professional valuers, one of them from the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works, and two being independent in the private sector, to carry out the assessment of the value of the properties being taken over.
The normal procedure in these cases is to average the three valuations.
The Mbudzi roundabout is at the intersection of Simon Mazorodze, Chitungwiza and High Glen Roads that feed traffic from western Chitungwiza and many old and new suburbs into Harare city centre, as well as the heavy national and regional traffic on the Harare-Masvingo Highway.
Construction of the interchange road is being carried out by Tefoma
Construction, a consortium set up by Tensor Systems, Fossil Contracting and Masimba Construction.
Transport and Infrastructural Development Minister Felix Mhona yesterday confirmed the compensation progress during a tour of the Mbudzi roundabout.
“When you partake such a project there are issues to do with relocations where you got people with title deeds, others had settled themselves illegally and this has been a very topical issue but let me hasten to acknowledge and to appreciate when we say we have a listening President. He then says we need to then compensate adequately those who are going to be disturbed because of this project.
“I am happy as we discuss now, that has been achieved and if you would witness we had close to 51 property owners with title deeds and we had close to 135 those that had actually settled here, maybe through council while others
had settled themselves illegally.
“As we speak, out of the 51 property owners we are only left with five that we are engaging closely but we have agreed on the compensation framework. And I must commend the Second Republic again, the funding has been availed and as we speak we are busy processing and we are close to 30, those we are actually processing so that we compensate them adequately and they are agreeable to that framework,” he said.
Minister Mhona said by end of next week they would have engaged closely those five property owners who are remaining.
“So you see accelerated works happening at this place because now we can demolish those properties that we have agreed with the owners. The idea behind is this is an economic enabler. If you talk of a good road network and if you see this stretch it starts from North South and South North, we are talking of 900km to Chirundu and it’s not going to end here on the Harare-Beitbridge Road. It’s Beitbridge-Harare-Chirundu.
“We have empowered our own contractors now they have capacity and have demonstrated that they can do much bigger projects, so we are also moving towards the north.
“We were are going to start with Chirundu, rehabilitating that border post just like what we have done at Beitbridge Border Post. We will rehabilitate the border post and also start rehabilitating the road from Chirundu as well,” he said.
Minister Mhona said the five contractors on the almost complete Harare-Beitbridge Road had also undertaken other projects under the Emergency Road Rehabilitation Programme and commended for the sterling work they were doing.
“So I am happy that as we do our tour. The idea behind it is to brag about what we can do as Zimbabweans and to demonstrate to the outside world that yes, we are under sanctions, but we need to move with speed and also make sure that we have the infrastructure that we desire as a nation,” he said.
Chitungwiza Road was now being redone since there was an outcry from the public over the stretch from Manyame River Bridge going towards Makoni.
Government has also moved in to rehabilitate and widen Amalinda Road and to construct the bridges along the road as they now have the designs for the road. High Glen and Highfield Roads are also going to be widened and dualised.
“When we talked about the interchange costing US$88 million, some people were saying where is this figure coming from? But we said we will take you through each stage where it covers the detours, where it covers this road network, where it covers the interchange.
“So it’s not just like someone comparing that in other jurisdictions it will cost US$10 million. It’s not fair to the contractor, or to the nation, because you are comparing two different scenarios,” Minister Mhona said.
The widening of the Beitbridge-Harare-Chirundu Highway, plus its reconstruction and rehabilitation, is a critical component of the North-South Corridor. The project is being undertaken by five local companies and is being wholly funded by the Government.
So far over 354km of the rehabilitated highway has been opened to traffic.
The 971km highway has been divided into three sections: Beitbridge-Harare of 570km with eight toll plazas, Harare-Chirundu of 342km with six toll plazas and the Harare Ring Road of 59km with three toll plazas.
Under the Infrastructure, Utilities and Digital Economy cluster in Zimbabwe’s economic blueprint, the National Development Strategy (NDS1), road rehabilitation is given a high priority since so much relies on having a decent road network in place.
Addressing the inaugural Buy Zimbabwe 2022 public procurement conference and awards ceremony in Harare recently, President Mnangagwa said local companies contracted by the Government to reconstruct and rehabilitate roads and highways were doing sterling and professional work, which highlights their capabilities.
Previously, local companies were being overlooked in terms of the awarding of tenders for big national projects.