MBUDZI INTERCHANGE FUND LOOTED
In Zimbabwe, infrastructure projects are used to loot public funds by the ruling ZANUPF elites using their business surrogates and corrupt Government bureaucrats.
How the Mbudzi interchange project was used as a looting tool by inflating the cost of the interchange.
The true cost of building the Mbudzi interchange is US 42 million dollars. The deal was given to Fossil Constructing, a company linked to ZANUPF oligarch, Kuda Tagwirei.
The cost was than inflated to US 88 million dollars, and the deal was made into a loan from Fossil Mines to the Zimbabwean Government.
A Government gazette note was published saying that the regime had borrowed US 88 million dollars for the Mbudzi interchange.
But Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube also published in his budget then that the Government of Zimbabwe was allocating money to build Mbudzi interchange from the IMF special Drawing Rights.
So the project was allocated money twice, a loan and IMF Special Drawing Rights. This is a ZANUPF specialty when looting public funds from councils to the treasury.
In South Africa Kwazulu natal, the uMhlanga interchange is one of the biggest interchange but it was built under US 100 million dollars, with suspended columns and compare with Mbudzi Interchange with hips of soils as Bridges costing US 88 million dollars,if you factor the double invoice .
The ruling ZANUPF regime amplifies its propaganda around these infrastructure projects because the citizens have never been told about the catastrophic looting of public funds using these projects.
Transparency and accountability are important aspects to limit or stop corruption in such projects to ensure the efficiency use of resources, but this has never been the case under ZANUPF.
The involvement of business figures linked to the ruling party raises concerns about their fair practices and the issuance of tenders which reflect the true cost.
It is essential for citizens to be informed and engaged in holding their government accountable for the responsible use of public funds without which we suffer collectively as a country.
This is why we stay broke as a nation. They turn every opportunity into a personal payday. Mbudzi should stand as a monument of theft, not progress. These projects are nothing more than polished lies. They parade cement and steel while pocketing millions through fake tenders and inflated budgets. The Mbudzi project is just one of many.
You can say what you want, but people were dying at Mbudzi roundabout before this project. Now there’s progress. It may not be perfect, but at least something is being done. At the end of the day, roads are being built and traffic is improving. Let’s not act like this was possible under opposition rule. ZANU PF is delivering infrastructure.
Double-dipping public funds using loans and IMF allocations is not just corruption, it’s sabotage. We are borrowing to enrich Tagwirei while hospitals collapse and roads rot. The Mbudzi interchange is a scam disguised as progress. Any real audit would expose it for what it is an inflated, rigged deal to benefit political cronies.