PREPARATIONS for the 44th SADC Heads of State and Government Summit, including infrastructure development projects such as road rehabilitation and upgrading of accommodation and conferencing facilities, are now complete, with the first meeting of senior officials leading up to the high-level Indaba set to commence on Thursday.
All road rehabilitation work that was being undertaken in preparation for the summit has been finished, with contractors set to start demobilising their equipment this week.
The Government has also secured over 20 hotel executive suites to accommodate 15 Heads of State and other high-level officials from SADC, the African Union and the African Development Bank attending the regional Indaba.
Six of the 18 state-of-the-art villas being developed in Mt Hampden will be completed this week, with contractors on site finalising electrical fittings, water connections, furnishings and landscaping.
In addition, the new Parliament building, which will serve as the main venue, is ready to host the summit, with the upcoming senior officials’ meeting now set to be held at the imposing facility.
The authorities used the successful hosting of the SADC Industrialisation Week last week as a test run for facilities that will be used during the main summit.
Briefing our Harare Bureau on the preparations, Deputy Chief Secretary and National Co-ordinator for Flagship Programmes and Projects in the Office of the President and Cabinet Engineer Amos Marawa said: “Zimbabwe is ready! The SADC summit itself has already started with the successful hosting of the industrialisation week, which started last Sunday and is ending today (Friday).
“This has allowed us to test run some of the facilities that we were preparing for the SADC summit, which is going to start with meetings of the senior officials from August 8 to 11.”
All infrastructure development work that was being done in preparation for the summit, he said, had been completed.
A new VVIP State Pavilion at the Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport is set to be commissioned by President Mnangagwa soon.
“In terms of venues and the infrastructure to service the summit, we start from the airport, where the VVIP State Pavilion is complete,” he continued.
“Everything has been done, including furnishing, carpeting, lighting and ancillary works, and very soon His Excellency, the President, will be commissioning it.”
Accommodation
He said over 20 executive suites have been secured across three top-tier hotels — Rainbow Towers, Hyatt Regency and Monomotapa — to accommodate the 15 Heads of State and other high-level dignitaries.
“The next set of facilities that are required for the summit are the hotels,” said Eng Marawa. “The delegates at the SADC Industrialisation Week have been staying at hotels that are to be used for the summit.
“The only thing that is going to change is that we had senior officials and some VIPs, but for the summit, we need to have suites that are suitable to accommodate Heads of State.
“I am happy to say we have in excess of 20 suites to accommodate and host Heads of State and Government.
“We are using three hotels to accommodate the high-level dignitaries in the available presidential and executive suites.
“Rainbow Towers is ready to accommodate them in 11 suites, while Hyatt Regency has seven and Monomotapa is giving us three.
“As you know, SADC has 16 Heads of State and we will be catering for 15. “This means we actually have an excess of the suites that are required.
“There will also be other VVIPs who will be invited from the African Union, African Development Bank and from the SADC Secretariat, so we have enough suites to accommodate those VVIPs.”
Roadworks
Eng Marawa said most roadworks are set for completion today, with only minor surfacing work remaining.
This week, contractors will begin demobilising their equipment and focus on final touches like beautification, street lighting and constructing pavements.
“We had also done main access roads from the airport to the city hotels and to the venue itself, which is the new Parliament building, and I am happy to say all the roads are ready,” he said.
“We are left with a few portions that are left in terms of surfacing, but these will be done by Sunday (today).
“In fact, next week (this week), all contractors will be demobilising; they are just in the process of cleaning and sprucing up, beautifying, installing streetlights and constructing pavements. All is done and dusted.”
He said the extensive road rehabilitation works have helped to significantly reduce travel time between Harare and Mt Hampden.
“The Ministry of Transport (and Infrastructural Development) has been opening up roads and now travelling to Mt Hampden from the central business district takes about 20 minutes, when it used to take no less than an hour.
“A few people have tested the road and it has been ascertained that it now takes about 20 minutes using either Nemakonde or Second Street, Bindura Road and Chairman Mao Boulevard to Mt Hampden.
“So, I am sure it is going to be a smooth ride for all guests when they come. “We are ready to go as far as roads are concerned.”
Construction of 12 villas in Mt Hampden, Eng Marawa added, was nearing completion, with six already enclosed and internal fittings underway.
He said the villas will be showcased to delegates. “Most of the villas are classified under type A (single storey) and for six of them, we have finished the erection of both exterior and interior walls.
“We have started on the furnishings, and we want to believe that, everything being equal, because some of the materials are still coming from Beira, we should be able to complete about eight.
“For the six, we are already putting in the fittings, electricals, water and furnishings within the actual rooms themselves.”
He said the access roads to the villas have also been completed, while landscaping and development of car parks is underway.
“We hope by the end of next week (this week), we will have finished some of the work and internal cleaning up of some of the villas that I am talking about.
“We are actually now fitting the doors, the furniture and the windows. “The other villas that we are talking about we should be finished by September.
“The development of the villas was not necessarily for the SADC, but we are happy that we can showcase some of the villas that we will have finished and hopefully make use of the completed villas during the summit on one of the days as the Presidents arrive.
“We also hope to showcase the new city, which is the administrative city that Zimbabwe is developing.”
The Senior Officials and Finance Committee meeting kicks off on Thursday at the new Parliament building and ends on Wednesday.
The same venue will then host the Council of Ministers meeting between August 13 and 14, before convening of the SADC Organ Troika Ministerial Committee and SADC Organ Troika Summit on August 16. The Heads of State and Government Summit will be held on August 17.
