The Sunday News
A $68 million deal for the establishment of a waste-to-energy plant by a United Kingdom-registered firm — Pragma Leaf Consulting in Bulawayo is now mired in controversy with the city’s councillors claiming they are being forced to endorse the deal by their party, MDC-T.
Despite media reports that the UK-based company had won the multi-million dollar deal it has since emerged that councillors initially rejected it but the motion has since been re-submitted for debate under unclear circumstances. The local authority is made up of predominantly MDC-T councillors.
Councillors who spoke to Sunday News on condition of anonymity revealed that they were now being instructed to award the deal to the company despite a number of logistical problems surrounding the deal.
The sources revealed that after they had initially thrown out the proposal, it had been referred back to committee stage under unclear circumstances before being tabled once again before full council and now a special council meeting has been set for this week to further discuss the matter.
The councillors’ caucus chairperson, Councillor Silas Chigora is reported to have been telling fellow councillors that “powers that be” had endorsed the project and it has to be passed.
During a full council meeting last Wednesday, Clr Chigora, who is also chairperson of the council’s environmental management and engineering committee moved a motion where he requested the 22 present councillors to defer discussing the matter and set a special council meeting with the remaining seven councillors present.
“This matter has dragged on for too long. I therefore move that we defer discussing the matter today and instead call a special council meeting next week (this week) where all councillors will be present so we reach a final decision once and for all,” said Clr Chigora.
However, council sources revealed that the move was meant to ensure that a caucus is called before the special council meeting where all councillors will be informed that they had to vote for the deal.
“We find it unfair that we cannot function freely. How many times have we honestly rejected this proposal and clearly stating our discomfort in the whole set up since it is not on partnership basis? Recently a caucus was called by our chief whip (Clr Chigora) where we were told to endorse this motion. Now for some of us we now fear that if we voice our objections we will be targeted considering that the MDC T provincial chairperson (Gift Banda) is also the deputy mayor,” said the councillor.
Another councillor alleged that there were a number of motions that were being passed after being discussed at party level.
“We are now toothless bulldogs, doing whatever we are told by the national leadership. Honestly if we are not careful we might suffer the fate that was suffered by Gweru councillors of the Government appointing a commission to run the council,” said the councillor.
Contacted for comment Clr Chigora, while confirming that they had recently called a caucus to ensure that councillors were brought abreast with the deal, said councillors still had the right to vote against it if they feel like.
He said all they wanted was to bring development to the city hence it would make no sense for any councillor to vote against the motion.
“When we initially withdrew that deal it was because councillors felt that this should be done as a partnership, not this company getting outright proceeds from the deal. I personally moved the motion for its initial withdrawal. Since then we have had countless meetings. We even discussed the matter during a council retreat in Beitbridge, which explains why the deal has been re-tabled for discussion. What I can confirm is that indeed I called a caucus meeting where we were informing our colleagues on the latest regarding this deal but we are not imposing the deal on them, come the special council meeting this coming week they can freely vote against it,” said Clr Chigora.
He revealed that the deal had garnered a lot of interest from various stakeholders hence he was not surprised by the allegations which were being peddled.
“I can tell you that since that deal was first tabled I have received a lot of calls from people enquiring how we will handle it. I guess it’s because of the fact that we expect 2 000 jobs to be created once the company starts working,” said Clr Chigora.
Efforts to get a comment from Clr Banda were fruitless. However, the party’s national spokesperson, Mr Obert Gutu said as a party they did not hold their councillors to ransom but allowed them to run the various councils under their jurisdiction in the best possible manner.
“It is not true that we try to influence any decisions made by our councillors, there is no transparency or democracy in that. We allow all our councillors to run their various authorities in the best possible manner so as to enhance service delivery,” said Mr Gutu.
The proposed $68 million waste-to-energy plant is expected to produce 110 000 litres of bio-diesel and 2,2 megawatts of electricity. The Bulawayo City Ccouncil said the UK-registered company has already finished a feasibility study for the project.
As part of the agreement, BCC said the investor had plans to bring additional refuse removal compactors to help improve garbage collection.
The council said Pragma had also indicated that its operations would not use potable water as they would obtain and purify waste water.
It is also believed that if operating at full capacity, an estimated 2 000 jobs would be created for refuse collectors, processors, sorters and some 120 professionals. Additional jobs will also be created in downstream industries.
The envisaged project would convert waste to energy and distill diesel, which council would have first option to purchase at $2 per gallon or 50 cents per litre.
The project, which requires between 12 months and 18 months lead time to complete upon signing the lease agreement, would also see by-products such as slag being used for the manufacture of concrete blocks or on road construction.
While BCC also proposed a land rental of $40 000 per annum and requested the investor to submit contract documents for signing, the investor requires a waste lease of 25 to 30 years.
