Zimpapers Logo

Mr Lekula

Business Reporter
Pretoria Portland Cement is under fire from local construction companies who are accusing it of sidelining them in the construction of the new cement plant in Ruwa in favour of foreign companies. According to inside sources, local companies submitted bids but these were rejected due to a directive from the cement company’s head office to sideline local companies and renegotiate a new contract with the main contractor, Chinese Sinoma International Engineering.

The Chinese company was already undertaking construction works at the cement plant. Sources say since the beginning of construction, no projects have been awarded to locals who actually have the same technical ability and expertise as the foreign companies.

“PPC is constructing a cement plant in Ruwa and the company is using only Chinese contractors to build the plant at the expense of local construction companies who have the same capacity. Local companies submitted bids and none of them got a contract,” said the insider.

Another source said the whole construction project being executed by Sinoma was driven by a Chinese workforce which was against the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio- Economic Transformation Agenda’s goal of creating jobs.

“A number of local indigenous companies have tendered for various technical expertise but none of them have been recognised. We believe that in order to empower local companies there should be joint ventures between the foreign companies and locals to get a win-win scenario,” said the source.

According to a local construction company which requested anonymity, the construction of the plant has been awarded to foreign companies and this included even small projects that can be done by locals.

“We don’t know the reason behind the continued sidelining of local companies because if given a chance to do the job they will definitely employ locals because they have enough capacity and expertise to deliver,” said the construction company.

In an interview yesterday, PPC managing director Mr Njombo Lekula said the company engaged Sinoma on an engineering, procurement and construction management (EPCM) arrangement.

He said EPCM was a common form of contracting arrangement for very large projects within the infrastructure, mining, resources and energy industries.

“We engaged the Chinese in an EPCM arrangement and the contractor is the one who knows how to execute the project and right now Sinoma employs 60 locals which I think is a large number. Due to the arrangement it is obvious that the contractor will provide for all the materials required but we told them that we need a quarter of local supply as well.

“The claims are baseless considering that we contracted also JR Goddard construction to do our road and sewer reticulation works for $700 000. So to say we are sidelining locals is unfounded,” said Mr Lekula.

He said the company would continue to empower local companies and suppliers. For example, an indigenous company has been awarded a contract to do all rail infrastructure at the plant at a contract value of about $3 million.

Speaking at promotional event recently, Mr Lekula told journalists that the company expects to complete the construction of its cement factory in the first half of next year with an investment of about $86 million having been made towards the project so far.

The project would cost a total of $200 million after completion with the investment package set to aid the setting up of another plant in Mashonaland Cen- tral.

This new plant would have a capacity of approximately one million tonnes of cement per annum and coincided with the construction of a separate grinding facility in Mozambique’s Tete prov- ince.

PPC is currently the dominant player in cement production, but its position could suffer from increased investment in the sector by competitors who could seize its share of the export and domestic mar- kets.