Zimpapers Logo

Minister Gumbo

Thupeyo Muleya Beitbridge Bureau
The governments of Zimbabwe and South Africa are finalising the drafting of a memorandum of understating to guide the operations and management of the New Limpopo Bridge at Beitbridge border post following the completion of the 20-year contract with the builders, the Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Development, Dr Joram Gumbo has said.

Speaking to the Herald recently, Dr Gumbo said they had agreed in principle over most issues and were hopeful an agreement would be arrived at soon.

He said the new arrangements followed the assumption of ownership and operations by Zimbabwe of the bridge from a private company New Limpopo Bridge (Ltd).

Dr Gumbo said the company, which constructed the bridge in 1994 had been in charge of the infrastructure under a 20 year built operating and transfer agreement.

“We have had several meetings with our counterparts and both parties have expressed willingness to get things moving.

“At the moment the Zimbabwe National Roads Agency (Administration) (ZINARA) is collecting bridge toll fees on behalf of the government.

“The money is being kept in a ministry of transport’s bank account and we are going to share it with South Africa starting from September last year,” he said.

Dr Gumbo said part of the money collected from the bridge would be used in constructing another bridge between the two countries.

He, however, ever could not disclose the actual amount that had been collected since the government assumed ownership of the bridge.

It is understood that the NLB was realising around $1,6 million in revenue from bridge toll fees each month.

NLB (Ltd) shareholders representative, Mr Thomas Proustow, told delegates during the bridge transfer (in 2014) that since the introduction of multi currency system in 2009, the government of Zimbabwe had received $30 million from them in toll fees.

He said a total of 10 million vehicles had passed through Beitbridge border post since 1994.

Beitbridge border post is one of the busiest ports of entry in Southern Africa where an average of 8 000 travellers accesses the border per day and the number increases to around 20 000 during peak periods.

A total of 2 100 buses, 14 000 to 15 000 haulage trucks and 25 000 private cars pass through the border on a monthly basis.