20 Feb 2019

Delay in payments to the Kazungula Bridge contractors by the Zambian government has contributed to stalling of completion of the bridge project. 

Deputy permanent secretary in the Ministry of Transport and Communications, Mr Garekwe Mojaphoko, said this in an interview on February 19.

“Due to these delays, this ended up affecting the contractor’s cash flow which meant they could not deliver as per expectations and on schedule,” he said. 

Co-financed by the governments of Botswana and Zambia, Kazungula Bridge project was launched in 2014 as a way of facilitating and boosting trade within SADC countries. 

Despite being earmarked for completion in 2018, the project is still ongoing. 

According to Mr Mojaphoko, progress stood at 73.5 per cent, which was four and a half months behind schedule.

When addressing delays by the Zambian government, Mr Mojaphoko said Botswana had engaged Zambia on the matter at ministerial level. 

“Recently our minister wrote to the responsible minister in Zambia to address these delays but if things do not get resolved, the matter will be escalated to the President,” he said. 

In addition, the DPS said platforms such as the joint technical committee meetings and joint ministerial committees between the two countries were used to address these matters.

Mr Mojaphoko also stated that there had also been issues of intellectual property regarding the prototypes for the foundation of the bridge, which were developed by the Japanese.

As such, he said there were disagreements on whether they could be replicated by other parties, something that caused further delays. 

“So we had to negotiate for the use of these prototypes,” Mr Mojaphoko said. 

He highlighted that border facilities for Botswana had their completion date revised from March 2019 to June. 

Costs for this part of the project on Botswana’s side is P440 million compared to Zambia’s K264 million (Zambian Kwacha).

“Zambia’s border facilities component is nine months behind schedule and expected to be completed in December 2019,” he said.

Mr Mojaphoko stated that costs for the Kazungula bridge project had been revised from US$161 million (P1. 8 billion) to US$174 million owing to omission of Value Added Tax (VAT) on the Zambian side. 

“The reason for the revision was that the contract had not catered for VAT on the Zambian side so that had to be factored in which escalated the costs,” he said. 

Completion of the entire project is earmarked for mid-2020. Ends