The City of Harare has been handed a US$750 000 bill by Netherlands based company, Geogenix BV, which is now managing the Pomona dumpsite, Harare’s main dumpsite.
The controversial company sent an invoice of US$750 000 to the Harare City Council after it drilled a borehole and constructed a four-roomed house at the site.
On Thursday, a special council meeting voted for the suspension of the 30-year waste management deal between Geogenix BV and the local authority.
The deal has been criticised by Harare residents because Geogenix BV will pocket over US$240 million at US$22 000 a day from Council for waste deliveries, a figure considered exorbitant.
Harare mayor Jacob Mafume on Saturday told The Standard that Council would not pay the bill despite Local Government and Public Works Minister July Moyo issuing a statement saying the deal will not be cancelled. Said Mafume:
Issues of governance are not a competition of essay writing. The council resolved. The signatories of the deal are cancelled.
The council has resolved to suspend the deal and investigate it.
Already the company has sent an invoice of US$750 000 after drilling a borehole and building a four-roomed cottage at the site.
The council is not going to pay, and the council resolution is not going to be suspended through an essay writing competition. The project will not go on.
Harare North MP Allan Markham (MDC Alliance), who filed an application at the High Court seeking an order for the cancellation of the deal, told The Standard that he feared the project would bankrupt Harare. He said:
What I have a problem with is the project will bankrupt the city.
I also have a problem with the fact that there is no bankable feasibility study done as required by the city or the investor.
Whatever the minister (Moyo) is saying is irrelevant and whatever the councillors have adopted is correct because the contract, the way it was done, is totally wrong.