Trabablas Interchange blew its budget by 29%

Ruvimbo Muchenje

Members of Parliament have requested that the Minister of Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion, Professor Mthuli Ncube to bring a ministerial statement to the house to explain why the project gobbled 26 million more that the initial projection.

The request came during Wednesday’s Question and Answer session which was graced by the President of Zimbabwe, Emmerson Mnangagwa, who came to listen in on the debates, where Emkhandeni -Luveve MP requested that Ncube clarify the total cost of the project and source of funds used at the interchange.

Ncube said the project was funded by, the loan as well as the Special Drawing Rights from IMF.

“Hon. Bajila has asked a very important question. The cost of Trabablas Interchange was driven by our initial loan arrangement of the order of USD88 million, which was provided by the Consortium of Contractors. In terms of what we used from the Special Drawing Rights, we were required to pay a deposit of USD26 million. So, we used USD26 million from the SDRs to pay that deposit and then the rest was structured as a loan from that USD88 million arrangement. So, we blended both the SDRs and the loans from the contractors,” said Ncube.

This response was not satisfactory to Bajila who asked whether USD$26million was part of the USD$88million or it was an addition to the loan.

Ncube said,

“The USD26 million is in addition, but it was a requirement for accessing the USD88 million that we pay that deposit to access that facility. We think that was a very good arrangement indeed because we have been able to complete the piece of infrastructure,”

Minister of Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion, Professor Mthuli Ncube

Asked to explain what prompted the USD$26million bulge by Dangamvura Chikanga MP, Prosper Mutseyami, Mthuli says the cost of relocating people in 135 houses and commercial properties that were in the way of the interchange sky rocketted.

“The cost of relocating, for example, relocating some of the residents that we relocated to create space, for developing this piece of infrastructure.

There were some unexpected escalations of that cost, which then pushed us towards increasing the budget by another USD26 million that I have referred to.

There are just unforeseen project variations. It happens in most projects. Projects do overrun.

It is normal but the question is, are you able to negotiate with the contractors so that the costs do not run away beyond affordability.

However, the cost of relocating families, households, was quite onerous and that caused the budget to go beyond what was initially budgeted,” he explained.

Mthuli Ncube further gave a breakdown of how they used the 88 million and the additional 26 million.

“ I think it will also assist the House to give a breakdown of this $88 million. Then I will go back to the 26 million. Also, the same question has also been presented to the Minister of Transport. We will repeat the answer when his question is due to be answered. We spent $65 million on things such as, for instance, contractors’ establishment on site, accommodation of traffic, the drains and just picking up a few things, pitching storm rate protection against erosion, stabilisation, prime court, road signs and foundation structures so the hard infrastructure engineering part was $65.5 million. Then we had to add some bridges, which were needed. Things like bridge 1, bridge 2, up to bridge 12, that was another $16 million, for example. Then there was the supervisor engineering fees and electrical works. Supervisor fees alone $2.4 million, electrical works $4.4 million, for example. If you just add those, then we are coming to $88.3 million. You can see that here we have not included the relocation costs that I was referring to. This $26 million went towards those relocation costs, relocating households who were on the way. We did that successfully and we thanked them for agreeing to move. That is what happens with projects. You have these unforeseen costs and you have to make provisions for them,” said Ncube.

Meanwhile it is important to note that the relocation process had dents of corruption.

On 26 January 2024, Deputy Director Road Services Division in the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure Development, Ernest Shenje was arrested for allegedly fraudulently claiming US$1 003 417 in compensation for a property affected by the construction of the new interchange at Mbudzi roundabout, along Simon Mazorodze Road, in Harare.

Shenje, working in cahoots with one Levy Idana [who was later arrested and jointly charged] and some lawyers, allegedly manufactured a fraudulent agreement of sale purporting that Levy Idana was the owner of Subdivision A of Subdivision B of Delft of Hopely which was in the name of John Maloney. They used the fraudulent agreement of sale to claim compensation, misrepresenting that Idana had purchased the property. Shenje went on to facilitate the processing working together with other Ministry officials. As a result, Idana was paid USD200 000.00.