Bitumen World, Masimba Hit Hard as Government Delays Infrastructure Payments – The Zimbabwe Mail

📅 Published: August 26, 2025

📰 Source: thezimbabwemail

Curated by AllZimNews.com

Founded in 2012 by Andre Zietsman, with businessman Hamish Rudland joining as a shareholder in 2019, Bitumen World rapidly expanded its fleet and workforce on the back of state projects.

It has also diversified operations by establishing Inter-Africa Civils (IAC) and launching a contract mining joint venture, BW Mining, with R Davis.

But payment backlogs are now undermining that growth. “The government is facing delays in settling arrears, affecting various projects including road rehabilitation and dam construction,” said Zietsman. “The tragedy of these layoffs is that they impact the very people who built this prestigious brand — a brand that was wholly created by Zimbabweans. ”
Bitumen World was in 2024 earmarked for a build-operate-transfer concession to develop the Beitbridge–Victoria Falls Highway, but government appears to have cooled on the deal.

Other leading contractors are also under pressure.

Masimba Holdings reported a 43% revenue decline in the first quarter of 2025 after scaling down state work to focus on private sector contracts.

The government has openly acknowledged the delays.

In April, Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube told Parliament: “As the government, we acknowledge that we have been in arrears with contractors, particularly those in the transport and infrastructure sectors.

This is due to cash constraints that we face.

We keep encouraging them to do more work while we settle those arrears. ”
President Emmerson Mnangagwa has previously defended the decision to hand major contracts to local firms, saying in 2023 that the policy had helped build domestic capacity. “In the past, when we wanted to build a road we would look for foreign tender.

This time around, we said no, we settled on five domestic companies.

They have managed to build their capacities,” he said.

For contractors like Bitumen World, however, the same government contracts that once powered their rise are now a source of uncertainty, as arrears pile up and projects stall. 🔗

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