The Beitbridge Town Council is worried about several buildings, worth millions of dollars that are lying idle. Some of the buildings are incomplete structures, while others belonged to companies that shut down citing poor business in the border town.
by OWN CORRESPONDENT
“There are several buildings that are empty, incomplete or have been abandoned, that are cause for concern,” Beitbridge Town Council chief executive, Loud Ramagkapola said in an interview yesterday.
The buildings include the $55-million Rainbow Hotel, Express Hotel, the Duty Free Shop, the Standard Chartered Bank building and the Public Service Medical Aid Society one.
The Zimbabwe National Water Supply Authority plant, the National Railways of Zimbabwe passenger station, P Hall Garage, government flats complex, the export processing zone facility and the National Oil Infrastructure Company of Zimbabwe (NOIC) are also not being utilised.
Ramakgapola said some of the structures had become an eyesore, considering their location in the heart of the growing town.
“We have the government houses along the highway to Bulawayo that have not been completed. They are an ugly feature, considering they are on the main road into Beitbridge,” he said.
The 140-bed Rainbow Hotel built for $55 million by the National Social Security (NSSA) closed in June, five months later, the 120-bed Express Hotel followed suit.
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The two separately cited high running costs against low business as reasons for closure.
The NSSA complex housed the hotel, two banks and an office complex.
In its application NSSA, funded by pensions, had said it was building a shopping mall, but later put up a hotel.
NOIC failed to complete its building erected on a massive stand on the intersection of the Harare and Bulawayo roads.
Medical aid society, PSMAS had a curios arrangement, where they rented offices, yet they have a huge complex fast developing into a ruin. The Beitbridge railway station, which once used to relieve the border post of pressure during peak periods, is idle.
Ramakgapola said all the companies that owned these buildings were not paying rates and other charges.
“We have written to the government requesting they allow us to complete their houses on an arrangement,” he said.
The council is also proposing to repossess 55 stands in Dulivhadzimo that the government was failing to develop.
Ramakgapola said the multi-million dollar water purification plant in Beitbridge was fast deteriorating into a white elephant, considering in 2013, it was 90% complete, but to date, it has not been finished.
“We are a growing town and we need water. There are many places that need water, but our supplies are inadequate,” he said.
The government should also consider face-lifting its old houses in town, Ramakgapola said.
Dozens of other complete government houses in the haMbedzi area are yet to be occupied and are also fast deteriorating.
