Almost everyone in Bulawayo agrees on one thing: the smoke coming off Ngozi Mine has to stop. What they do not agree on is whether the answer should arrive by ministerial order, with the company already chosen, before the city has seen a contract.
That is the fight that has played out over the past fortnight, after government told Bulawayo City Council to sign up with Geo Pomona Waste Management, the company that took over Harare's Pomona dumpsite in 2022.
What government ordered
On 10 September, at a stakeholder meeting at Bulawayo's Small City Hall, Local Government and Public Works Minister Daniel Garwe directed the council and Geo Pomona to conclude an agreement within a week to replicate the company's waste management model at Richmond Landfill, CITE reports. Geo Pomona's chief executive, Dilesh Nguwaya, was in the room, alongside Mayor David Coltart, council officials, the provincial minister and members of the Joint Operations Command.
Garwe framed it as a question of rights. Residents of Cowdray Park, he said, are entitled to breathe fresh air, and the city should never apologise for refusing to live with pollution from the landfill. He also announced a Presidential Bins Scheme, with companies providing bins in urban areas and Geo Pomona leading it.
How the council responded
Council did not sign within the week. After an urgent meeting, Coltart said councillors had noted the directive and asked management to get a draft memorandum of understanding from Geo Pomona for them to consider, CITE reported in a story republished by Zimbabwe Situation.
Speaking on CITE's This Morning on Asakhe, Coltart was frank about the city's position. Council does not have the technical expertise or the money to build a processing plant itself, he said, because only about 65 percent of rates and bills are being paid, and a plant done properly would cost millions of dollars. So some kind of partnership is likely.
But he also drew a clear line between Harare's problem and Bulawayo's. Harare, he said, struggled both to collect waste and to process it. Bulawayo's cleansing department still collects regularly. What the city needs is a way to process waste at Ngozi Mine, and it needs to know what Geo Pomona would offer and what it would cost. Councillors plan to visit the Pomona site in Harare, and Coltart said residents would see the draft MOU before any decision because "it's not a secret document".
The city's own long-term idea, he explained, is a plant that separates organic waste from glass, plastic and metal, turns plastic into aggregates and other products, and possibly generates energy. Council had already been working with the Zimbabwe Investment and Development Agency on pre-feasibility studies before the minister stepped in.
The procurement objections
In Parliament, Emakhandeni-Luveve MP Discent Bajila raised a Point of National Interest, warning that directing a council to engage a specific company before statutory procurement procedures are finished could damage investor confidence. Investors, he argued, need to know that everything in Zimbabwe is above board, and he called on the House to use its oversight role, according to CITE.
Pelandaba-Mpopoma MP and opposition chief whip Charles Moyo was blunter at a stakeholders' meeting hosted by the Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association. He said government was welcome to recommend companies, but arriving with a particular firm and ordering the council to sign, without time for due diligence, was not acceptable.
Eleven civic organisations, including Ibhetshu Likazulu, Habakkuk Trust, the Bulawayo Vendors and Traders Organisation, the Bulawayo Waste Management Traders Association and Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, issued a joint statement rejecting the directive, The Zimbabwean reports. They said councillors should not sign anything until the terms were published and put through competitive tender, and flagged a possible conflict of interest because Nguwaya is also the presidential advisor on waste management. Residents' groups have also pointed out that council had already started its own procurement process, and that firms which submitted expressions of interest should be allowed to compete.
Why Harare's history matters here
Bulawayo's caution is shaped by what happened in Harare. The original Pomona deal in 2022 was not put to tender and committed Harare to paying Geogenix BV, the Netherlands-registered contractor behind the Geo Pomona project, a fee for every tonne of waste delivered to the dumpsite, The Standard reported at the time. Jacob Mafume, who is Harare's mayor today, called it "energetic corruption" at the time, FairPlanet reported. Geo Pomona, for its part, points to the fencing, access roads, gates and designated disposal areas it has since put in at a site it describes as previously plagued by months-long fires. Critics point to the cost and the way the deal was agreed.
Neither side in Bulawayo is arguing that nothing should change. The question is whether the city signs a long-term deal before it knows the price.
A middle path on the table
Participants at the residents' meeting proposed a two-track approach, CITE reports. The first track would start immediately and not wait for any concession: fire suppression, regular covering of waste, leachate control, air-quality monitoring, and water testing in communities that may be affected. The second track, any long-term arrangement, would go through feasibility studies, market testing and open procurement, with financial models, tariffs and guarantees published before the city commits.
They also asked for regular monitoring and public reporting of pollution affecting Luveve and Cowdray Park, independent checks on any waste-to-energy claims, more transparency on refuse charges, and for the informal waste pickers already working at the landfill to be built into whatever system comes next.
What it means for residents
For Cowdray Park and Luveve, the priority is simply fewer fires and cleaner air, and the two-track proposal is the one most likely to deliver that quickly. For ratepayers across Bulawayo, the size and length of any contract matters, because the city already struggles to collect what it is owed. For recyclers and waste businesses in Matabeleland, an open tender is an opening. A ministerial appointment is not.
The next milestone is the draft MOU. Whether it is published, as Coltart has promised, will say a lot about how this ends.
Sources
- Govt taps Geo Pomona to tackle Bulawayo waste crisis, CITE
- Council unable to fund Ngozi Mine waste plant, Coltart says, CITE
- Bajila raises procurement concerns over Geo Pomona directive, CITE
- MP challenges Geo Pomona deal for Bulawayo waste management, CITE
- Bulawayo council stalls on Geo Pomona MOU despite Garwe's ultimatum, The Zimbabwean
- Bulawayo council wants Geo Pomona MOU before considering deal, Zimbabwe Situation / CITE
- Bulawayo residents reject government directive on Geo Pomona deal, CITE
- Pomona scandal a tip of the iceberg, The Standard
- The foul waste-to-energy deal that could bankrupt Zimbabwe's capital, FairPlanet
- Geo Pomona Waste Management
Written by Rufaro
Plain-language guides to getting rid of anything in Zimbabwe, properly.
