(HERALD) Council to probe joint venture projects

Council to probe joint venture projects
Municipal Reporter

HARARE City Council will audit all joint ventures it entered with local and international companies after discovering that money meant for some of the projects has vanished from bank accounts while others were stillborn.

The audit also seeks to establish whether the joint business ventures actually benefit council.

The decision follows the disappearance of an undisclosed amount of money deposited by an Italian company into a local bank to kick-start a joint waste management venture with Harare.

Recently council signed a joint venture agreement with Forekast of Italy to set up a waste management company.

However, mystery surrounds the deal after funds deposited by Forekast into a local bank disappeared.

According to minutes of the latest full council meeting, the funds cannot be traced.

A meeting between the city and officials from Forekast is scheduled within the next two weeks to discuss the missing funds.

It has also come to light that a joint venture between council and the National Oil Company of Zimbabwe to establish a jatropha plantation at Cleveland Dam is non-existent despite glowing reports by town clerk Dr Tendai Mahachi that 20 hectares of jatropha had been planted during the 2007/08 season.

He had reported in an earlier meeting that 150ha were to be planted in the 2008/09 farming season.

But at last Friday’s council meeting, councillors made it clear they did not want to be part of failure.

Clr Pumulani Musagwiza ignited the debate when he declared that the joint ventures were not benefiting council.

"The joint ventures are not bearing fruit," he said with particular reference to the jatropha project.

A visit by councillors to Cleveland Dam established that there was no jatropha plantation except for a few plants that council authorities are now describing as part of measures to conserve the environment.

The councillors called for the scrapping of the joint venture.

Clr Panganayi Charumbira said some of the joint ventures could not be justified and should be discontinued.

"I do not want to be part of failure. Some of the decisions on joint ventures do not make sense," he said.

Mayor Mr Muchadeyi Masunda joined the debate, saying any joint ventures that did not benefit the council would be dropped.

"We need a critical approach of where we are and whether to continue or drop them," he said.

He, however, dismissed allegations by Clr Charumbira that council was mortgaging the city without the consent of the residents and ratepayers, saying councillors — as representatives of the people — had the right and duty to make decisions on behalf of the people.

Council has entered into several joint ventures worth millions of United States dollars with local and international companies.

In September 2007, council signed a US$30 million joint venture with an Estonian company for the development of a residential suburb and a hotel around Warren Hills Golf Course, a shopping centre and a truck inn in Hopley.

The agreement also included commercial and residential development north of Arcadia and a link road between Enterprise Road South and Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo Road to provide direct passage from the city centre to the airport.

In October the same year, council signed a US$136 million agreement with a Qatar-based company to establish hotels and a casino business.

Under the joint venture with Vanessia General Trading, the two partners were supposed to build a hotel at the corner of Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo Road and Harare Drive and another at an undisclosed site and a shopping centre in Borrowdale West Extension.

Council has another joint venture with Dairibord Zimbabwe Limited to establish a dairy farming project.

Other local companies which council has deals with include Homelux Real Estates to upgrade McDonald Swimming Pool, completion of the restaurant, construction of lodges, and Shelter Zimbabwe for the development of houses along the Upper Mukuvisi (Chizhanje area).