A SOUTH AFRICAN conglomerate with interests in mining, hospitality and retail sectors, Advance Africa, has been offered 15 000 square metres of land to build a $20 million shopping mall in Kwekwe.
by BLESSED MHLANGA
Kwekwe mayor Matenda Madzoke confirmed the deal last week saying the mall would be located close to the intercity bus rank.
“They have already come to us and land has been found and allocated to the developers for that state-of-the-art shopping mall which will change the face of this city and create employment for our people,” Madzoke said.
Speaking at the official opening of the South African firm’s Dazzels Supermarket in Kwekwe last week, its major shareholder, Brennan de Bruyn, said the mall would mostly trade in South African products.
“We are going to construct a 15 000m2 mall here where there is going to be enough parking for everyone and we will make sure that you have access to low prices on products that we will bring mostly from South Africa,” he said.
De Bruyn, who also owns a hotel in South Africa, said his company would seek to close the gap opened when government banned the importation of “unhealthy” second-hand clothing.
“The banning of the unhealthy importation and sale of second-hand clothing brings an opportunity to bring low-cost, but new clothes into the Zimbabwean market and that mall will be just the start,” he said.
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Advance Africa has reportedly conformed with Zimbabwe’s indigenisation laws after ceding a 51% stake to unnamed locals.
Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa, speaking at the official opening of Dazzel Supermarket last Friday, said the investment by De Bruyn was most welcome at a time the government was looking at ways of attracting foreign direct investment.
“We are in the process as government of trying to discover what it is that makes investors choose other countries ahead of us and once we discover that, we will also do the same to make Zimbabwe an investor destination of choice,” Mnangagwa said.
