Tagwirei linked Fossil Contracting under-fire for laying ‘substandard roads’

Fossil Contracting, one of the major construction companies in Zimbabwe is under-fire for allegedly constructing substandard roads after getting contracts from the government worth millions of dollars.

Pictures of a road in Harare’s Bluff Hill suburb emerged on social media this week showing massive cracks and potholes barely two weeks after it was rehabilitated.

The road was serviced by Fossil Contracting, a controversial company that is listed under the United States’s Global Magnitsky sanctions together with two other entities and eleven individuals, including President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his wife Auxillia.

The company is owned by Obey Chimuka, a shadowy businessman who is also under the US economic embargoes and allegedly thought to be a proxy for sanctioned mogul Kudakwashe Tagwirei.

Transport and Infrastructural Development Minister, Felix Mhona, recently announced a crackdown on road construction companies whose work fails to meet standards.

He said the government would “blacklist” such companies after an outcry over poor workmanship on recently refurbished roads. These roads developed cracks and potholes just weeks after completion.

“We don’t want a scenario where we say we are rehabilitating roads then at the end of the day we are left with shoddy works,” Mhona said.

He added that the government is accountable to the people of Zimbabwe for how it spends public funds.

Mhona explained that the government’s intervention in road repairs is due to the state of disaster declared by the President.

Citing the Roads Act, he added that the ministry has the legal authority to oversee the rehabilitation program.

“This is high time we are going to blacklist contractors who are not performing,” Mhona declared.

Commenting on the state of Bluff Hill road, investigative journalist Hopewell Chin’ono pointed out that the regime uses infrastructure projects to steal public funds.

“This is two weeks later, after a road in Harare’s Bluff Hill suburb was laid by a company owned by President Mnangagwa’s advisor and business associate,” Chin’ono said.

“Fossil Contracting secures huge infrastructure contracts not because they are skilled, but because of their connections and proximity to political power.

“One of the methods used by this regime to embezzle public funds is through infrastructure projects. They overcharge and deliver only the minimum which is always shoddy work.

“And this is the regime’s interpretation of ‘the bare minimum’” Chin’ono.