The Sunday News
Dumisani Nsingo Business Reporter
HWANGE Local Board’s proposed civic centre, the local authority’s drive to attain township status, has gathered momentum with a number of investors expressing interests in undertaking major infrastructural development at the intended site of the Central Business District.HLB chairman Councillor Cosmas Ndlovu said the local authority was aggressively marketing its 12,5 hectare civic centre project which has an estimated value of more than $50 million mostly through luring investors into private public partnership and build operate transfer arrangements.
“We are aggressively marketing our civic centre in many forums and in that vein we intend to hold an Investment Conference in August where we will invite a number of companies including affluent individuals that we presume to have the capacity and capability to invest,” he said.
“The investment conference will create a platform for potential investors to interact with officials from the local board as well as members of the community and our thrust is to get into PPP and BOT arrangements with would be investors,” Clr Ndlovu said.
Hwange has been without a focal point, apportioning of land has been done by big companies namely Hwange Colliery Company Limited (HCCL), Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority’s subsidiary Zimbabwe Power Company and the National Railways of Zimbabwe.
HCCL has over the past three years destroyed some of its low density houses within the vicinity of its commercial business centre to create space for businesses to set up their structures.
“There are a number of investors who have expressed interest in putting up infrastructure on our CBD site but I can confirm that Celebration Ministries International have strongly indicated their willingness to construct a state-of-the art conference centre and we have already pegged the land for them.
“The Zimbabwe Revenue Authority has also expressed interest in constructing their regional offices there but the issue is still being deliberated on at their headquarters. We are also looking forward to courting Spar Cool Land which is a subsidiary of Hawkflight Construction,” Clr Ndlovu said.
Efforts to get a comment from Celebration Ministries International’s chief executive officer, Dr Peter Chikumba, were fruitless as he did not respond to questions sent to him through an email by the time of going to press.
As part of its efforts to encourage infrastructural development in its area of jurisdiction the local authority is also in the process of parcelling out 150 serviced and titled low and medium residential stands at its Baobab Brooke area with a net value of $1,5 million.
“We intend to generate $1,5 million from the sale of the residential stands and we will realise $150 000 as current expenditure of which we will use most of it to take care of salary arrears,” Clr Ndlovu said.
The local authority has been struggling to pay its employees. Its salary bill is around $80 000 a month owing to low rateable properties and rates payment defaults by residents and institutions.
It owes its workers a five months’ salary but has of late managed to honour its salaries obligations.
“The stands will be serviced and will have title deeds. This product is good because one can use it as collateral for applying for a bank loan to develop the stand.
“Our focus is on income generating projects because our rates account doesn’t give us adequate revenue base because our rateable properties are very low,” said HLB’s chief executive officer, Mr Ndumiso Mdlalose.
The local authority closed the tender for the servicing of Baobab Brooke stands last week and would be doing tender adjudication as from this week.
