While Zimbabwe’s shoddy traffic interchange at Mbudzi in the capital on the renovated Harare-Beitbridge highway will ultimately cost a staggering US$88 million upon completion, the biggest and most sophisticated similar project in Africa, Mount Edgecombe Interchange in Durban, South Africa, cost R1.14 billion (US$65.936 million) to build.
This is a whopping US$22 million difference – taken as money for the boys – which significantly shows Zimbabwe’s project is exceedingly expensive, corrupt or both.
That is a far wide margin for the handpicked contractors, which is extortionate and costly to taxpayers by any measure or calculation.
The contractors, who thrive on overpricing and corruption, are connected to high government officials and powers that be.
The Zimbabwean public does not believe the Mbudzi project actually cost anywhere nearer US$88 million, not even half that amount considering the far better comparative design, cost and specifications on the bigger South African project, all things considered.
Zimbabwe’s construction projects, including this traffic interchange, are generally characterised by opacity, cost escalations and corruption.
While public officials should exercise budgetary oversight on such big infrastructure projects, they are usually complicit.
Mismanagement, corruption and inefficiency in public infrastructure projects – a hidden tax on the poor – are damaging to economically vulnerable countries like Zimbabwe and usually lead to high taxation, which means the public is subsidising corruption.
The Durban interchange – which is far more sophisticated than the Mbudzi one – was opened in 2018 as the largest in the southern hemisphere.
It is a four-level structure with 23 piers and a 948-metre-long bridge.
It connects the N2 to Verulam, Umhlanga, Umhlanga Ridge, Durban North, and Phoenix via the M41.
However, one of the most basic and shoddy traffic interface platforms in Zimbabwe will cost a staggering US$88 billion (R1.6 billion), which is clearly a fraud.
Newshawks
