The fight over the country's largest cross-border bus terminus, Roadport, in central Harare, is far from over with operator Mr Jefta Mugweni alleging the agreement with Harare City Council over using part of the land originally assigned to Raylton Sports Club was a public private partnership (PPP), not a build-operate-transfer (BOT) model.
There has been a standoff for some years, with Harare City Council alleging that Mr Mugweni has been refusing to surrender the facility following the expiry of a 25-year BOT arrangement.
Last week, Harare Mayor Jacob Mafume threatened to cancel an agreement with Roadport (Pvt) Limited, alleging the council has not benefited from the deal.
Roadport started operations in the late 1990s and serves travellers going to destinations in SADC and some parts of East Africa by bus.
Mr Mugweni yesterday said the council and Roadport deal was a PPP, not a BOT.
"All parties have fulfilled their obligations to date and the council was paid in full contrary to what the Mayor said.
"The Mayor is also being unprofessional when he says Roadport is not part of the masterplan and wants to move it to Mbudzi. Such utterances are reckless and are made without due care to the consequences on the brand Roadport," he said.
Mr Mugweni said the Mayor was also wrong to mix up the council's relationship with Raylton and that with Roadport.
"Roadport would like to engage the Mayor of Harare to bring back the mutual relationship which was cemented on 25 September 1995 when the PPP agreement was signed off. The Mayor's continued misinformed utterances are not good for the city and for the brand Roadport -- an innovative idea conceived and developed by Jefta Mugweni," he said.
Over 70 coach operators use the Roadport each day with franchises for Chicken Inn, Bureau de Change, EcoCash, ZRP and others operating from there. The council's capacity to operate the terminus has been questioned as most of its termini are in a poor state following years of neglect, although the local authority has been collecting revenue from the use of the facilities.
Combined Harare Residents Trust programmes officer Mr Rueben Akili yesterday said the City of Harare has not been acting decisively on this matter, which raised more questions than answers.
"It is not the first time to hear that the City of Harare wants to take over Roadport. The City of Harare needs to make the agreement made between them and the company running Roadport public," he said.
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"As CHRA we will be pursuing a process of getting the agreement through the Freedom of Information Act. The local authority can't continue to issue threats, they need to act, but this also exposes how our council has been failing to have deals and agreements that are beneficial to the residents."
When the fight began, Harare Residents Trust director Mr Precious Shumba recently said the council should not rush to repossess Roadport from the company currently running the facility.
"It is currently being run in a very professional manner. If the council believes that they can run the Roadport, they should finish the incomplete bus terminuses at Rhodesville, the Colcom Holding Bay and the National Sports Stadium and put in place a similar or better system than Roadport.
"Allowing the current administrator to run it allows the City of Harare to focus on other key infrastructure development projects. Bringing in private partners helps the ratepayers in the long run," he said.
The Roadport deal was signed on September 25, 1995, with actual construction starting in 1997 by a team comprising the late national hero Cde Biggie Matiza, who was the architect.
