The City of Harare was recently handed a US$750 000 bill by Geogenix BV, a Dutch firm that is currently handling the Pomona dumpsite, Harare’s primary dumpsite as full details of the controversial deal continue to emerge. The bill was handed to the city council after the company drilled a well and built a four-roomed house on the property and the bill was supposedly for this work.

This was all done despite the fact that the council recently voted to cancel the deal which was forced through by Minister July Moyo. A special council meeting on Thursday approved the suspension of the 30-year waste management contract between Geogenix BV and the local authorities.

Details of the deal have angered Harare residents as they learnt that the company will earn close to US$300 for essentially doing nothing at a whooping sum of over US$22 000 per day. The only way the deal can be described is as official looting as the deal does not benefit Harare City Council or the city’s residents in any way. What the deal does is benefit Politically Exposed Persons who are part of the deal. For it’s part the City of Harare have sworn that it will not pay not that council will have any such large sums of money lying around.

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.