Airport road scandal: PM summons Chombo

Sources in the PM’s office say he called on Chombo to discuss the controversial deals before his visit to Japan last week, amid revelations that the cash-strapped council paid 800% more than it should have for the 20km stretch of road.

The Harare City Council Town Clerk, Tendai Mahachi, and the director of urban planning services, Psychology Chiwanga, are members of the board of directors of Augur Investments. In June 2008 a caretaker council appointed by Chombo signed an agreement with the company to upgrade the road. The project was valued at $80 million, with 10% of the money being paid in cash and the remainder in land. Chombo endorsed the agreement and signed as a witness.

The Comptroller General, in his report on the Government Financial year ended December 2010, revealed that the construction of a road should cost at most $500,000 per km – meaning the airport road should not have cost more than $10 million.

Documents in our possession reveal that the wetland along Borrowdale Road, where Augur plans to construct a $100 million shopping mall, was transferred to the company as part payment for the road deal – despite a council resolution against the change of land use.

“On 30 November 2009, Harare City Council passed a resolution not to accede to the change of land use of the Millennium Park from a public open space to a multi-purpose park. This resolution remains unchanged to this date,” say the documents.

The land was transferred to seven companies linked to Augur, namely Yellow Seat, Home Villa Properties, Doosex Properties, Express Properties, Homeday Properties, Ice Class Properties and Electro Properties.

Our investigations also reveal that the land was undervalued. Residential land is sold at an average of $15 per square meter, but Augur got the commercial land, which should cost more, at only $3,50. This means that the total prejudice suffered by the council on the deal could be well above $200 million.

Chombo has also reportedly issued a preliminary planning permit to Augur to begin construction of the mall, despite a recommendation that the Environmental Management Agency should first do an impact assessment in accordance with the law.

EMA has not approved the project and some councilors now stand accused of having been bribed with pieces of land in Vainona from a named senior government official to back it.

Sources in the PM’s office said Tsvangirai had ordered Chombo to make sure all the necessary legal procedures were followed before construction began. As leader of the Government Work Programme, Tsvangirai was wary about the deal, which was likely to come under public scrutiny as Borrowdale residents intended to take the matter to the Administrative Court.

“If this matter goes to court, the whole airport deal will come under public scrutiny. If the Prime Minister endorses the project without ensuring that all legal processes have been adhered to, he risks being associated with these irregularities,” said the source.

Ken Sharpe, the South African Director of Augur, which was hastily set up in May 2008 and won the tender without prior experience in road construction, recently attempted to gag the media from reporting on his projects. The other directors are Oleksandr Sheremet (Ukraine) and Michael John Van Blek. The financial director, Alistair Gibson, left in 2010.

Chombo distanced himself from both the road and mall projects, saying they were purely commercial deals between Augur and HCC.

‘‘I am tired of being dragged into matters that don’t concern me. All the time these so-called scandals emerge, the media finds a scapegoat in me and I don’t know what crime I have committed,’’ Chombo told The Zimbabwean.

‘‘My ministry has no file at all concerning the projects in question and all the facts lie with Augur and the Council. As a ministry, we only facilitate the allocation of land where parties need it and I am prepared to give them more if approached. The technical details are outside my sphere,’’ he added.

Last year councillors reported Chiwanga to the police for allegedly transferring land in Glen Lorne belonging to the city to Harvest Nest Enterprises, a company owned by Chombo, prejudicing the council of $1 million. The police have not taken any action to date.

Councilors want to know why Augur is now shifting attention to the Mall project when the road that formed the core of the deal has not been completed.

Recently, the HCC approved a project by Chinese Company, Anjin Investments, also linked to diamond mining in Manicaland, to construct a multi-million dollar hotel on wetlands next to the National Sports Stadium. Construction of the hotel is continuing despite EMA insisting that it should be suspended until an environmental impact assessment has been carried out. Powerful officials are accused of accepting bribes.

Dualisation of the Harare-Beitbridge Road has also taken years to take off, with senior government officials accused of trying to wrestle the project from ZimHighways, a consortium of local and international business people, and demanding kickbacks of at least 10% of the $1 billion project.