Can a government that cannot run a road be able to run a country?
The nation is shocked by the extent to which the public tender system is infested with corruption and personal aggrandizement. In fact the whole tender system is rotten and needs serious overhaul. The cancellation of the Beitbridge-Chirundu Highway dualization tender that had been fraudulently awarded to a Chinese and Australian company shows that the Zanu-PF government can never handle any mega investments due to personal greed by corrupt politicians.
The problem is turfism in government as Ministers compete for the spoils of corruption. Now we all know that the highway dualisation deal was a dump squib. We feel sorry for investors who have been conned by the government.
The reason Investors will not come to Zimbabwe is because of policy inconsistency , policy ambiguity and policy reversals. This is not the first time the Zanu-PF government has cancelled an investment deal.
The $800 million Essar Zisco Steel deal collapsed because cabinet Ministers were stampeding to ” eat” from the deal. Up to now Zisco Steel remains closed and thousands of workers and their families are suffering. The 2 billion dollar highway project was going to create jobs and promote supply chains across the whole country. So the cancellation of the Highway deal flies in the face of the “Zimbabwe is open for business” mantra.
An MDC government will introduce a transparent public tender system that is independent of politicians. Investors will not be taken down a false garden path. We will make it easy to do business in Zimbabwe. This is the story of how Zanu PF has decimated the economy since 1980. The state capture of the public tender system must be stopped. The touted Beitbridge-Chirundu Road dualization project is now a circus. Yet this highway is the vital trade route for Zimbabwe. Goods worth billions of dollars are ferried annually on this highway.
Sixty percent of Zimbabwe imports pass through this highway. The highway is also the main trade route commonly referred to as the North-South Route corridor which passes through Zimbabwe,Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, DRC, Tanzania, Uganda up to Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibought up to Egypt. This is a strategic highway which is good for regional integration and boosting intr-african trade. In March 2018, 44 African Heads of States and Government signed the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) in Kigali to boost African trade but Zimbabwe cannot seize the opportunity to upgrade its road infrastructure.
All we now know is that all the so-called Mega Deals have not materialized due to corruption. This is symptomatic of a governance crisis in the country. The cancellation of the Highway deal, comes on the cusp of a watershed election. This will not augur well for Zanu-PF’s re-election bid. To the voters, the writing is on the wall. The choice is between the past and the future.
DR Tapiwa Mashakada is a former Zimbabwe Minister of Investment Promotion.
