3 October 2009
Victoria Falls — The National Social Authority (NSSA) will soon resume the construction of a US$12 million hotel in Beitbridge amid doubts the facility will be ready for the 2010 soccer World Cup. NSSA is constructing the hotel on behalf of the Rainbow Tourism Group and will own 10% of the business once the project is complete.
Construction work was suspended last year at the height of the country's worst ever economic meltdown after workers started refusing payment in the worthless Zimbabwe dollar.
James Matiza, the NSSA chief executive officer told Standardbusiness on the sidelines of the recent 27th edition of the Employers Confederation of Zimbabwe (EMCOZ) congress that the introduction of the multiple currencies meant that the environment was now conducive for work to resume.
"We started work early in 2008 after we awarded a contract to a construction company to do the bulk of the work, which included clearing the ground, clearing the construction site and road construction," he said.
"The contractor did some work but as the year was progressing we started feeling the strain of cash shortages.
"The contractor said the workers were no longer willing to accept the Zimbabwe dollar salaries and a lot of them were crossing the border into South Africa." said Matiza.
He said the contractor gave them the option of paying in fuel coupons but NSSA could not source them.
Matiza said after the new currency regime, they decided to re-engage contractors to take the project to the next stage.
"We were now faced with the problem of pricing. They used the conversion rate from last year and the project costs were too high.
"The estimates from the engineer were that the costs for the projects will be around US$ 8 million.
"After engagements with the contractor, we have managed to reduce the costs to as low as US$ 5,6 million."
Matiza said tenders for the construction of the superstructure would be advertised soon and if a suitable contractor is found before the end of the year, the hotel might be completed by the end of 2010.
"So this means that the hotel should be operational by 2011," he said.
Zimbabwe is among Southern African countries waiting to tap into the influx of tourists during the 2010 tournament that kicks off in June but there are concerns that the country does not have adequate world class tourism facilities.
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