A recent visit by the Energy Parliamentary Portfolio Committee to the site of the proposed US$172.8 million solar plant in Gwanda revealed that little progress has been made towards the construction of the 100-megawatt plant.
According to CITE, the site is currently overgrown with bushes and shrubs and lacks signage and proper facilities.
The wooden buildings are infested by termites, the roof titles are missing, and there is a single solar panel for security lighting.
The state of the site prompted the parliamentarians to grill Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC) managers about the contract awarded to Intratrek Zimbabwe Pvt Ltd, led by Executive Director Wicknell Chivhayo, and its technical partner ChiNT Electric, on October 23, 2015.
The meeting between the members of the Energy Parliamentary Portfolio Committee and the ZPC representatives was held under the blazing sun due to the absence of even basic facilities.
The committee’s chairperson, Leslie Mhangwa, accused ZPC of misrepresenting the project as “a running project” and demanded to know why the contractor was not present during the visit. Said Mhangwa:
We spoke to ZESA and they made it a point that all stakeholders are here. We expected that the contractor was supposed to be here. That’s why the Members are not very happy because that was the expectation.
ZESA Holdings Legal Advisor and Corporate Secretary, Tungamirai Chinhengo, said the parliamentary committee should have directly summoned the contractor using their official powers. He said:
We thought it would be important to place on record that the nature of the contract we have is an Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contract, which has two stages.
The first stage is there are certain conditions precedent that must be satisfied before the contractor can mobilise on site.
We do acknowledge and confirm that this contract is valid and in effect following the (2023) Supreme Court judgement.
Chinhengo explained that Intratrek initially moved to the site around 2016 for preliminary works. However, the contract was terminated in April 2018, with an eviction order forcing them to demobilize.
He said the Supreme Court later ruled in ZPC’s favour in December 2023, reversing an earlier High Court decision that deemed the contract invalid. Said Chinhengo:
So that explains the reason why the contractor is not on site and there are no works which are actually ongoing. So it’s a more fair, legal, and contractual issue.
To facilitate remobilization to the site, we now still need to comply with the provisions of the contract and satisfaction of the conditions thereof, which would then allow for remobilization.
ZPC Acting Project Technical Director, Forbes Chanakira said ZPC had advanced US$5.7 million to Intratrek.
He explained that this amount breaks down as US$2.1 million for the feasibility study, US$2.8 million for other pre-commencement costs, and the remaining amount for Value Added Tax (VAT).
Chanakira revealed that Intratrek first mobilised to the site in June 2016 but did not manage to complete all the works. He said:
The EPC contract was subsequently terminated as a result of the lapse of the precedent satisfaction period. So the termination of the contract was on account of the lapse of the CP satisfaction period.
After that, a protracted legal battle with the contractor ensued, which resulted in the cancellation in 2018.
Chanakira said the pre-commencement works to be done by Intratrek included the feasibility studies, project site commencement and site establishment works. He said:
Site establishment means the basic ablutions, communication network, borehole drilling and storage access, roads and ground clearance where the solar farm was going to sit.
Chanakira said ground clearance was done in 2016 and because of the passage of time, shrubs have emerged, warranting another site clearance.
The site was a “very huge bush” and there were a lot of big trees that were cut, according to Chanakira. He added:
Another key pre-commencement work, which was supposed to be done is the construction of a three-phase 33 KV power line to the site.
The contractor got a quotation from the ZETDC but this work is yet to be done. The communication is also yet to be done.
Chanakira further stated that the topographical, and geotechnical surveys, including the feasibility study, were done and completed, confirming that the 100 MW capacity solar power plant is realisable on the site.
