Africa-Press – Malawi. Zimbabwe has cancelled a US$2 billion (MK1.8 trillion) contact awarded to Khato Civils owned by Malawi’s richest man alive Simbi Phiri. The Beitbridge-Bulawayo-Victoria Falls highway links Zimbabwe to the trans-African highway linking Gaborone in Botswana to Pretoria in South Africa project was cancelled last week.
However Zimbabwean media reports indicate that the Government of Zimbabwe has cancelled the contract after the country’s Vice President Constantino Chiwenga express concerns over the project delays.
The contract awarded in 2019 to dualise the highway has been called off years after the award of the contract due to delays in the project commencement. The move has also come just two months after President Emmerson Mnangagwa expressed concerns over delay by the contractor to start the project.
Zimbabwean news site, Chronicle, reported in November last year that Mnangagwa, during a Zanu-PF rally in Beitbridge, condemned the contractor over the delay, saying it had been more than a year since the company was awarded the tender.
“I was talking to Vice President Chiwenga about that road and we reckon the contractor might be lacking resources, now we are considering giving that tender to someone who will be able to deliver,” said Mnangagwa.
In Malawi, Khato was in 2016 awarded the Salima-Lilongwe water project to extract water from Lake Malawi to Lilongwe. The $306 million (MK275 billion) project is yet to start as the company and the government of Malawi have been failing to agree on a financier to provide a concessional loan.
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