By Sifiso Sibandze
The much-awaited development of the Mbabane multi-storey bus rank will remain a mirage after the Mbabane Municipal Council terminated the E500 million bus rank Public Private Partnership (PPP) Contract with JM Busha that was aimed at developing a state-of-the-art bus terminus in the capital city.
This development was revealed by the City Council Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Gideon Mhlongo on Tuesday at Mountain View Hotel during a meeting with Editors.
Mhlongo said the contract was terminated about a month ago over poor performance on its obligations as spelt in its contract. Mhlongo added: “The failure to meet some of its contractual obligations resulted in delays of the entire project.”
Read More: Ghana official creditors close to giving financing assurances for debt rework talks -sources
Strikingly, JM Busha is one of the non-bank institutions whose licenses were not renewed by the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA).
Against this backdrop, Mhlongo explained that the termination of the contract was not in any way linked to the non-renewal of JM Busha’s licence by the FSRA.
Mhlongo then announced that the council would issue another expression of interest from prospective developers who would be interested in partnering with them for the development of the bus rank.
Read More: AfDB pledges E7.1m towards the development of African companies
The agreement between the council and JM Busha in connection with the construction of the bus rank was signed in 2018. At that time, the council spelt out that it would develop a four-storey building structure that was supposed to include retail space, additional parking facilities for the bus rank and an off-loading base.
It was said it would also have space for the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) including vendors who are currently trading at the bus rank.
