A Chinese bank is reportedly reluctant to lend Harare City Council $140 million being sourced by the local authority to solve water woes, citing a botched deal with the Zimbabwean government.
Harare mayor Muchadeyi Masunda said China was now demanding a cash payment of $5 million first and an acceptable payment plan in connection with the Zisco deal that took place years ago before releasing the funds Harare needed to address the perennial water challenges.
They (Chinese) say they want a payment of $5 million plus an accepted payment plan in connection with the Zisco deal.
They are holding us to ransom in a way. It (the botched deal) has nothing to do with the City of Harare, Masunda said.
We asked the Prime Minister (Morgan Tsvangirai) to make the point clear and I also raised the issue with the outgoing Chinese Ambassador and told him to look to central government. How can we as City of Harare be held to ransom?
Masunda said the city has never relied on central government for assistance.
We have always paddled our own canoe even before independence. We have never relied on the government. People have to understand especially the Chinese, they send people in connection with the $140 million loan and when it comes to disbursement, they say Zimbabwe owes the Chinese government, he said.
We are negotiating with the French Development Agency which has its Southern African base in South Africa. We have a serious problem in our hands. Our installed capacity is way below demand for water, he said.
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If we get four of those funders like Development Bank of Southern Africa, French Development Agency, GIZ (Germany) and a bit of help from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, then we must have $539 million, Masunda said.
The mayor also said council was keen to act on the Kunzvi Dam project that has stalled owing to lack of funds.
My concern as mayor of Harare is that we need to stop talking about Kunzvi Dam and start acting. The project has been talked about for a long time, we need to get cracking so that if we start mobilising, realistically, we can make Kunzvi a reality inside three years, Masunda said.
As City of Harare, we have assets that are relatively unencumbered and enough to satisfy the lending criteria of these institutions.
Harare is losing 40% of treated water to leakages due to ageing infrastructure.
