Contractor fed up

C

hina Civil Engineering, the contractor for the FCB Nyasa Bullets Stadium in Zingwangwa Township, along Chikwawa Road in Blantyre, has abandoned the project.

A source confided in Weekend Nation that the contractor felt the deal “did not make business sense” because government was taking time to issue payment.

Said the source: “They informed government that they were no longer interested to proceed with the project because payment was taking time and with issues like devaluation it became increasingly frustrating and they couldn’t take it anymore.”

Ministry of Youth and Sports spokesperson MacMillan Mwale confirmed the development in an interview yesterday, saying the contractor asked for termination of the contract.

He said: “What I can say is that the contractor wrote us, terminating the contract and we accepted.

“We are, currently, reconciling the figures to see how much we owe them so that we can settle the dues, but it’s not much.”

Mwale said in view of the development, the ministry will advertise for bids to identify another contractor for the project.”

When we visited the site yesterday, we established that the project stalled sometime back and construction equipment has since been rmoved elsewhere.

On Mighty Mukuru Wanderers project in Soche, Blantyre, Mwale said the contractor [Anhui Foreign Economic Construction Company] is still around, “but the contract period expired”.

He said: “So, we will seek advice from PPDA [Public Procurement Disposal of Assets and Authority] on whether to re-advertise or extend the contract.

While there has been significant progress on the Wanderers stadium project, not much has been done at Bullets’ stadium site where there is only a VIP Stand foundation.

Mwale attributed this to the difference in the landscape at the two sites. He said the Bullets one was rocky, unlike the Soche land, which is flat.

On why there is no progress on the two projects despite being allocated K1.8 billion in the 2024/25 National Budget, the ministry official attributed it to arrears that government owes the contractors.

“So, what happens is that the allocated funds go towards settling the outstanding arrears as such, there shouldn’t be a lot of expectation. The funding is simply on the lower side,” he said.

In March this year, Parliamentary Committee on Social and Community Affairs chairperson Savel Kafwafwa said they advised the ministry to concentrate on one project at a time other than spreading the little resources across several projects”.

In the same month, Mighty Mukuru Wanderers president and board chairperson Thomson Mpinganjira asked government to live up to its pledge and give the two stadiums to the respective clubs once completed.

The business mogul and philanthropist said this when he was a guest of honour during a Super League of Malawi fundraising dinner in Lilongwe.

He said allocating the stadia to the two clubs would help shape the football commercialisation drive.

Said Mpinganjira: “Constructing a stadium is not easy, lucky are the teams sponsored by government. Civo [Civil Service United] and Silver [Strikers], they didn’t build for themselves. I do not understand why they [government] are denying Bullets and Wanderers stadiums.”

Initially, the Bullets stadium was estimated to cost K3.8 billion while the Nomads one was pegged at K3.6 billion.

Government, through immediate-past president Peter Mutharika, pledged to construct the two stadia during the 2019 Tripartite Election campaign period.