New dispute over the agreement with Geo Pomona

Geo Pomona Waste Management

HARARE Mayor Jacob Mafume and senior council officials were recently summoned before the Ministry of Local Government and ordered to hand over the city’s garbage collection function to Geo Pomona Waste Management from June 1, according to can reveal the Zimbabwe Independent.

The latest development comes two years after the government handed over management rights to the capital city’s main landfill, in Pomona, for 30 years to Netherlands-based Geogenix BV, led by businessman Delish Nguwaya.

Geogenix BV is owned by Albanian businessman Mirel Mèrtiri, who has allegedly been involved in “controversial” waste management and incinerator deals.

Nguwaya, who represents Geogenix BV’s interests in Zimbabwe, is said to be a close associate of President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s family.

The $350 million transaction between Geogenix BV and the government has sparked a fierce dispute between the government and Harare City Council over the years.

For the past two years, Harare City Council has been aggressively trying to revoke the lucrative deal, which the government insists is set in stone.

In June 2022, Geo Pomona Waste Management handed over a $750,000 bill to Harare City Council in a series of measures it has taken so far to control the controversial landfill.

In the latest move to strip Harare City Council of control over its rubbish collection mandate, The Independent has established in an ongoing investigation that the local authority would be obliged to pay $124 per tonne of rubbish Geo Pomona will collect from industrial sites and residential. spread throughout the city.

This would equate to millions of dollars over the next three decades.

Mafume told this publication that the agreement, which stipulates that cash-strapped HCC will pay large sums of money to Geo-Pomona, “would sink the council in the first month.”

“We have made our position clear on this issue,” he said.

“The Council simply does not have that kind of money. It would sink the council in the first month.

“If the government pays, then it is another problem. They can use the disaster declaration to do this. Residents need to be consulted as our budget does not include any provision for this,” he said.

Sources familiar with the multi-million dollar transaction told the Independent that Mafume was summoned by then local government minister Winston Chitando, along with municipal secretary Hosiah Chisango and works director Zvenyika Chawatama, during which meeting the officials were given the June 1 ultimatum. to hand over responsibility for city trash collection to Geo Pomona.

The meeting was chaired by Chitando.

Last week, President Emmerson Mnangagwa reassigned Chitando to the Ministry of Mines and Mineral Development.

The former minister did not respond to questions from the Independent.

The sources, in separate briefings, questioned the “legality” of Harare City Council in continuing to charge fees to residents for a service it would no longer provide.

“So the City of Harare will bill residents for a service they will not provide? Is that even legal? one source questioned the deal in a writing to the Independent.

“Who will residents turn to or sue if their trash is not picked up? The city of Harare is an easy target for Geo Pomona.”

Nguwaya did not respond to questions submitted this week.

He also did not answer his mobile phone.

Among other issues, the Independent wanted to establish whether Geo Pomona had acquired garbage collection trucks to carry out the garbage collection function and how much it expected to generate monthly for performing that task.

The multibillion-dollar waste management project, which was granted national project status by the government, also faced opposition in the courts at the time of its consummation.

In 2022, former Harare North legislator from the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC), Allan Markham, filed an application with the High Court seeking an order for the cancellation of the waste management agreement.

Harare residents also called on the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc) to investigate the multi-million dollar deal.

Local government secretary John Bhasera requested questions in writing.

“Send your questions in writing and then I will answer them,” Bhasera told this publication.

He had not responded at the time of printing this article.

Among other relevant issues, the Independent also wanted to establish whether Geo Pomona had demonstrated to the government and Harare City Council its ability to effectively fulfill its new waste collection role as detailed in the waste management agreement with the government.

As a result of the imminent handover of the garbage collection function to Geo-Pomona, municipal workers in the services division under the works department expressed fear that their jobs could be at stake.

“Harare Water workers were once forced to rely on the Zimbabwe National Water Authority and experienced untold hardship,” said a disgruntled council official.

“We have been told informally that by the end of May 2024, workers in the services division will be transferred to Geo Pomona. There is very little we have been told, but current actions and activities surely point to something happening without our knowledge”.

Geogenix BV, led by Nguwaya, used to be known as Integrated Energy BV.

In 2019, Harare City Council awarded Integrated Energy BV the same lucrative waste management project without going to tender.

The company was not among three companies that responded to a public tender announced by Harare City Council for the project.

However, it was given the go-ahead to implement the money-making waste management project in violation of the Procurement Act.

The legislation stipulates that contracts exceeding $1 million must be awarded through public bidding.

The idea for the Geo Pomona project was born as an environmental solution to eliminate Harare’s garbage by converting it into renewable energy.

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