The awarding of Pomona dumpsite by Harare City Council (HCC) to a German investor, Geogenix BV, for the purpose of transforming the dumpsite into a waste management project continues to make headlines for all the wrong reasons, with private waste depositors pulling out citing increased costs.
HCC concluded a US$ 344 million Build, Own, Operate and Transfer (BOOT) joint venture agreement with Geogenix BB with a contractual lifespan of 30 years.
According to reports, the contract enjoins HCC to pay at least US$22 000 per day to dump waste at Pomona dumpsite for the next 30 years, a massive cost burden other waste depositors will have to incur and is likely to affect viability.
Now, Clean City, a Ecocash Holdings waste collection and disposal services unit that has been depositing its rubbish at Pomona for a fee, has decided that it will not pass on the additional costs to its customers and will instead halt operations in Harare.
“The public is advised that we have suspended our waste management and waste disposal services in Harare with effect from 25 May 2022. The recent change in the terms of trade at the Pomona Waste Facilities has left the household and corporate clients that we serve unable to afford the service. In turn, this has impacted the viability of our waste disposal business. The company will update the public and its valued clients of any further developments,” said the company.
The development has exacerbated the deal’s impasse, with Harare Mayor Jacob Mafume vowing to sabotage it by telling stakeholders to ignore the new rules.
“May all stakeholders proceed as before. We will instruct our staff to allow the use of the dump site as before. Any challenges they should approach the town clerk. This is not colonial times where land was signed off by a pen and bond paper as the major expense,” Mafume tweeted this morning.
Already there has been a lot of noise regarding the deal which never went through tender as required by law, with Harare residents condemning it.
Harare North MP Allan Markham (CCC) has since taken Harare City Council and Geogenix BV to court over the deal.
