Government has finalised crafting the Construction Bill which seeks to regulate contractors in the country, protect the public from substandard products and workmanship as well as control the influx of foreign players into Zimbabwe, a Cabinet Minister has revealed The new law, which has been on the cards for 15 years, is expected to be in place by February next year, Housing and Social Amenities minister, Daniel Garwe has said The law also has provisions for the establishment of an industry regulator, to be called Construction Industry Council, which is expected to monitor and register companies carrying out construction work in Zimbabwe Negotiations to have a legal framework between the construction industry and government began in 2005, but the close to two decades of negotiations yielded no positive results
Local contractors have been expressing concern over the rate foreigners, especially Chinese construction companies, were being given jobs of major construction projects in Zimbabwe at their expense Garwe, who was appointed to head the portfolio 12 months ago, disclosed that the draft Bill has now been sent to the Ministry of Justice for their perusal Garwe, a former president of the Zimbabwe Building Contractors Association (ZBCA), said the Bill would address the local contractors’ plight “I spent more than 30 years fighting for tenders as a member of ZBCA, now I am a leader
I want to see a better construction industry, which is regarded as a key enabler in the development of our country The sector needs to be protected,” Garwe said He added: “The (Construction Industry) Bill is in advanced stage In January or February next year, we should have the Bill
Contractors had forgotten to say they want to be protected We added that now and we have agreed in principle We have now sent it to the Ministry of Justice for further perusal.”
Garwe said local contractors need to be regulated like other professions in the built industry such as architects, quantity surveyors and engineers, who have Acts of Parliaments to guide their operations He expects a boom in the next coming years hence the need to protect the sector
“We are expecting a boom from January 2020 This means Tigers will come, but we have confidence in local contractors, and we need to protect them,” Garwe said Harare Metropolitan Provincial Affairs Minister, Oliver Chidawu, who founded and managed Kuchi Construction Company said the proposed law has taken “too long” to be enacted “Other countries in the region such as South Africa, Botswana, Zambia and Malawi, which took ZBCA as a case study on how it managed to organise itself as indigenous contractors, have already enacted legislation to govern construction industry
But here in Zimbabwe it’s still floodgates We are not protected So, if we don’t protect ourselves, we will end up not knowing how to build our own homes,” Chidawu said Source: Business Times
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Source: Businesstimes
