Bulawayo must assess Geo Pomona costs before deal — Mayor Coltart

The City of Bulawayo must establish whether it can afford the Geo Pomona waste management model before committing public funds to a project that could cost tens of millions of dollars, mayor David Coltart has said.

Speaking to ZimLive, Coltart said the city needed substantial investment to address the crisis at Richmond Landfill, commonly known as Ngozi Mine, but had not yet determined whether Geo Pomona Waste Management was the right partner.

“There is no deal at present, and we’ve not signed any agreement at present with the company,” he said.

The council has sent technical teams to assess Geo Pomona’s operations in Harare and examine its costs. Councillors are also expected to visit the facility before deciding what arrangement, if any, would meet Bulawayo’s needs.

The assessment follows a government directive for the city to engage Geo Pomona to address its waste management problems, particularly the situation at Ngozi Mine.

Local government minister Daniel Garwe directed the city to engage the company during a visit to Bulawayo on September 10, with the government pushing for the arrangement to be finalised within a week.

Coltart said the city needed substantial investment to improve waste management, including infrastructure for separating and processing waste.

“We will need an investment amounting to tens of millions to construct a world-class separation plant and then a processing plant which can process plastic waste into aggregates and into energy,” he said.

Geo Pomona’s proposed involvement in Bulawayo has drawn attention to its existing waste management arrangement in Harare.

The company set a target of collecting 650 tonnes of waste daily at a rate of US$40 per tonne, in an arrangement reported to cost about US$9 million annually. The reported Harare figures, however, do not establish what Bulawayo would pay.

No price or final financial terms for the proposed Bulawayo arrangement have been disclosed. Coltart said the city was still assessing Geo Pomona’s operations and costs.

He said Bulawayo’s needs differed from those in Harare, particularly regarding refuse collection.

“Unlike Harare, Bulawayo has been collecting waste very well, and that’s not where our needs are,” he said.

He said the city had refuse trucks on order and was awaiting the disbursement of devolution funds to pay for them.

“When those trucks arrive, we will have a full complement,” he said.

“Our main concern relates to waste separation and to processing of waste.”

The scope of any agreement will determine what services Geo Pomona provides and what the city would be expected to pay for.

“We don’t yet know the financial implications or the legal implications at present,” he said.

He added that Zimbabwe’s procurement laws still applied. Bulawayo had received three compliant bids through a procurement process initiated in 2025. The bids were received in October that year, and a prefeasibility study was submitted to the Zimbabwe Investment and Development Agency in June 2026.

A committee was scheduled to consider the proposal on September 8, two days before Garwe’s directive.

The government’s intervention prompted residents and civil society organisations to call for transparency over the proposed arrangement and clarity on the status of the existing procurement process.

The proposed changes have also raised concerns among people who earn a living by recovering recyclable materials at Ngozi Mine.

Nqobizitha Ncube, 38, who has lived at the landfill since he was 18, said residents were uncertain about their future if they could no longer work there.

“Our worry is the rumour that we hear about Geo Pomona. What does it have for us? What is it bringing to us?” he said.

Ncube, who has four children, said some residents lacked identity documents that could be required to secure formal employment, while older people faced difficulties finding alternative work.

He appealed to the government to intervene and ensure residents were not left without support.

Crispen Vundla said residents feared losing their livelihoods and wanted the government to provide alternative housing if relocation became necessary.

“For most of us, this is the only job that we know. We were born here, and we were raised here,” he said.

Geo Pomona has said it will absorb the Ngozi Mine residents as waste collectors, if its deal is approved.

Coltart said the council’s cleansing department had been working to control fires and smoke at the landfill, although the risk remained.

“Our cleansing department has been addressing the issue, and thankfully, certainly in the last month or so, we have not had the massive fires discharging toxic fumes,” he said.

“But it is always a possibility, and that is why it needs to be addressed.”

Coltart said the city would consider entering into an agreement if Geo Pomona was found to be the most suitable provider for waste separation and processing, and its services were affordable.

“If we are satisfied that Geo Pomona is the best suited to address waste separation and processing, then subject to it being affordable by council, we would have no objection in principle to entering into a contract to address waste separation and waste processing,” he said. *_-ZimLive_*