The Mbudzi traffic interchange in Harare is not just an overpriced structure. It is a physical reminder of the greed, lies, and rot that have overtaken Zimbabwe’s governance. At a staggering US$88 million, this simple and unimpressive interchange has managed to cost more than South Africa’s world-class Mount Edgecombe Interchange which came in at just under US$66 million. Anyone with eyes can see this is not about engineering or scale. It is about theft in broad daylight.
Mount Edgecombe in Durban is a four-level engineering masterpiece. It includes 23 piers and a 948-meter-long bridge that connects key highways and cities like Verulam, Umhlanga, Durban North, and Phoenix. It handles high volumes of traffic daily and was designed with world-class standards in mind. Yet it cost less than Zimbabwe’s Mbudzi structure which can hardly be called complex. It is smaller, less sophisticated, and nowhere near the same scale. And still, we are told it costs US$22 million more. This is an insult to every thinking Zimbabwean.
That US$22 million difference is not an accounting error or a cost of materials. It is the price tag of corruption. The contractors at Mbudzi were handpicked. Their links to high-ranking officials are no secret. The entire project is built on a foundation of looting disguised as development. They did not build a road for the people. They built a pipeline to siphon public funds straight into the pockets of the politically connected.
This is not an isolated case. Zimbabwe’s infrastructure projects have long been synonymous with shady deals, missing funds, and inflated prices. From roads to hospitals to government buildings, the same pattern repeats. No audits. No transparency. No shame. What we have is a hidden tax on the poor, a burden on the working class, and a betrayal of national trust.
The officials tasked with oversight are not blind. They are complicit. Instead of protecting public funds, they facilitate the looting. They approve inflated budgets. They rubber-stamp suspicious contracts. They serve power, not the people. And in the end, we get substandard infrastructure that costs us triple what it should. While they build mansions and buy luxury cars, citizens face potholes, power cuts, and poverty.
Many Zimbabweans doubt that Mbudzi truly cost US$88 million. And they are right to question. The project does not even look like it should cost half that amount. If South Africa can build an advanced interchange of that size and complexity for less, what excuse do we have? None. This is corruption. This is theft. This is ZANU PF’s legacy.
The Mbudzi interchange is not progress. It is a national embarrassment. It is a symbol of how far we have fallen and how broken our systems have become. Instead of building for the future, the regime builds for headlines and kickbacks. They speak of development while draining the country dry.
We must ask the hard questions. Who got the contracts? Who approved the budget? Where did the money go? Why is no one answering for this fraud? Until there are real consequences for this kind of corruption, it will only continue. And Zimbabwe will remain stuck in the mud of misrule.
The people of Zimbabwe deserve better. We deserve roads built with integrity, leadership that serves, and budgets that make sense. The Mbudzi interchange must not be forgotten. It must be remembered as the moment when Zimbabweans said enough. It is time to rise. Time to demand change. Time to end the looting.
About The Author
