Bulawayo (ZimEye) – A war of words erupted at a Press conference addressed by the Minister of Water and Infrastructure Development, Samuel Sipepa Nkomo over the takeover of the Matabeleland Zambezi Water Project, which has been renamed National Matabeleland Zambezi Water Project (NMZWP).

Nkomo told a Press conference in Bulawayo that his ministry was taking the MZWP, now NMZWP, from the Matabeleland Zambezi Water Trust, which has been implementing the massive project for years.

He said he was merely implementing a 1 December 2009 cabinet decision to wrestle the project from MZWT to speed up its completion.

“On 1 December 2009, Cabinet approved the takeover of MZWP from MZWT. However, contrary to public sentiments, there is nothing new about the project takeover because the issues started in 2004. We are just implementing what the inclusive Government decided,” said Nkomo.

“NMZWP takeover is non-political but is meant to improve supplies of water to the people of Matabeleland.

However, the move to re-Christian MZWP to NMZWP brewed a storm during the Press Conference, which was attended by politicians and representatives from the business community as they accused Nkomo of diluting issues related to the region.

The Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce Matabeleland regional manager Bulisani Ncube led the tirade against Nkomo, saying the MZWP’s name should not be changed.

He queried why the government preferred to prefix names of projects in Matabeleland with national.

“We have the National University of Science and Technology (NUST), now its National Matabeleland Zambezi Water Project. Why don’t we have similar projects elsewhere in the country named national? We don’t want that, we want the MZWP to be maintained,” said Ncube.

“Universities in other cities and towns in the country retained the names of places where they are allocated. That is why we have Bindura University, Chinhoyi and Midlands universities.”

Pressure mounted on Nkomo to maintain MZWP until he gave in, saying if the stakeholders felt the name had to be changed he would do so.

“It’s just that there were cabinet ministers who felt MZWP was a national project and asked why we carried the name without national. I protected Matabeleland by accommodating both national and Matabeleland, hence the NMWZP,” he said.

Nkomo estimated that the project would cost US$1,1 billion and would be completed in the next two years, although about 60 percent progress had been covered by the MZWP.

Stakeholders also challenged the minister to guarantee whether his team would be able to implement the massive MZWP when his ministry was failing to drill boreholes in rural areas as well as rehabilitating the Nyamandlovu Aquifer boreholes.

He failed to respond to the challenges but said he was groping in the dark after he professed ignorance on the measurements of the Gwayi-Shangani Dam.

Nkomo was taken to task by Lobengula Councilor Phinias Ndlovu,  who asked how the people around the Gwayi-Shangani Dam and those along the way where the pipeline would be laid, would be relocated.

The minister said he did not know how that would happen, raising questions from stakeholders who said he was not serious about the MZWP takeover.

Also of interest was that Nkomo changed Gwayi-Shangani Dam to Gwayi-Tshangani Dam.

The nationalisation of MZWP has created fierce debate with MZWT chairman Dumiso Dabengwa describing the takeover as cheap politicking and lack of respect and disregard of a people-initiated project.

By ZIMEYE