HARARE — A full council special meeting held today has begun steps to bring to an end the controversial Pomona dumpsite contract awarded to GeoGenix B.V.
Harare councillors, this afternoon, adopted two motions to suspend the $344 million contract awarded to Geogenix BV, and also to appoint a committee to review the entire waste-to-energy contract.
At least 23 councillors had earlier appended their signatures to the motion for a special meeting.
Harare mayor Jacob Mafume of Citizens Coalition For Change has previously said the city council will not pay a cent to Geogenix BV, describing the agreement signed by the local authority as the “mother of all corruption” that has to be stopped immediately.
Earlier this week Community Water Alliance has petitioned the City of Harare to terminate the controversial Pomona waste management deal in the interest of good public administration while the Zimbabwe Human Rights Association has petitioned the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission to investigate the agreement.
On Tuesday, Government appeared to be forging ahead with the deal with Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister Monica Mutsvangwa saying the construction works started by GeoPomona should be replicated in other cities.
“We want to say to Geogenix we are impressed with what you are doing. You have been here hardly a month, but the work you are doing with the City of Harare is very impressive,” she said on the side-lines of a tour of the dumpsite.
“As a Government we are quite excited that issues of waste management will be things of the past. We want a Harare that is clean. The Second Republic is talking about putting back Harare, our cities, into the sunshine cities they have always been.”
The latest move by Harare City Council councillors is set to ignite a fierce battle with central Government officials who are hellbent on seeing the contract succeed.
The case is also pending before the courts.
