The bromance between President Mokgweetsi Masisi and his Zimbabwean counterpart Emmerson Mnangagwa is being stress tested as Zimbabwe asserts its territorial claim over Botswana’s side of the Kazungula Bridge.
Indications are that Zimbabwe’s endgame is to muscle in on the lucrative project.
A meeting between Botswana’s Minister of Land Management, Water and Sanitation Services, Kefentse Mzwinila and his Zimbabwean opposite, Anxious Jongwe Masuka last month ended in a stalemate with the two ministers deadlocked over the position of a border beacon code-named BB842 which demarcates the Zambezi River between Botswana and Zimbabwe.
While Masuka is adamant that the Kazungula pier which runs over the Botswana side of the Zambezi River has encroached into Zimbabwe territory, Mzwinila on the other hand insists that the BB842 border beacon has been pegged on the wrong position.
In an interview with the Sunday Standard, Mzwinila confirmed the meeting but denied reports of a territorial dispute with Zimbabwe. “Occasionally we meet to discuss issues related to border reaffirmation and we have such regular and productive meetings with all our neighbours”, said Mzwinila. The minister played down the tension with Botswana’s northern neighbour saying, “we are not discussing the Kazungula Bridge. We have very close, warm and cooperative relations with the Republic of Zimbabwe.”
The Zimbabwean minister on the other hand would not respond to calls from the Sunday Standard.
With Mzwinila and Masuka locked in a stand off, it is understood that the dispute has been escalated to Masisi and Mnangagwa. Masisi and Mnangagwa have for the past few months been basking in their blooming camaraderie with Botswana’s president emerging as one of the biggest critics of international sanctions against Zimbabwe.
Up until recently, Mnangagwa placed his relationship with Masisi above the pressure to be part of the Kazungula project. Last year while hosting Masisi in Zimbabwe, Mnangagwa stated that: “On the question of Kazungula border issue, between me and my dear brother, we settled it in less than seven minutes.” After pausing for applause, he continued: “I told my brother that that dispute arises from the former expansionist mentality of the former Ian Smith regime.”
That regime, he claimed, wanted to hold on to some “100 metres of marsh.” With a dismissive wave of the hand and dramatic voice, he delivered another applause line: “Give it to Botswana!” When the applause had died down, Mnangagwa added that there was no need for Zimbabwe and Botswana “quarreling when we know the true facts of the situation.”
A few months later the political and economic stakes in the border dispute have become much higher than just the position of a guideposts in a body of water under a huge bridge, and the two presidents’ friendship may not be enough to tide them over the troubled waters. The Zimbabwean president is in a double bind, while he would want to nurture his relationship with Masisi, he also has to consider the economic interests of his people and to protect his political career.
ECONOMIC PRESSURE
Mnagangwa is currently under economic and political pressure at home to be part of the Kazungula Bridge. The US$260 million road-rail project (Kazungula Bridge) which began in 2014, “was conceived as a bypass to Zimbabwe and its main port of entry Beitbridge border post, sub-Saharan Africa’s busiest gateway. The Kazungula Bridge is diverting traffic away from Beitbridge border post which presently generates tollgates revenue that Zimbabwe desperately needs. Mnangagwa has always been aware of the economic toll the Kazungula Bridge would have on Zimbabwe, unless his country got a piece of the action.
Four months after he took over as Zimbabwean President, Mnangagwa in March 2018 held talks with former president Ian khama and former Zambian President Edgar Lungu to have Zimbabwe as part of the Kazungula Bridge project.
The then Zambian Infrastructure Minister Ronald Chitotela and Botswana then Transport Minister Kitso Mokaila announced at a press conference that Zimbabwe would now take part in the project. The three countries would also set up a one-stop border post at Kazungula.
Eleven months later, in February 2019, the then Zimbabwean Transport Minister Joel Biggie Matiza, was quoted saying “Zimbabwe was left out during the previous administration and Botswana and Zambia went ahead. As a country, we are set to lose out if we are not integrated into the project because traffic will just go past us. President Mnangagwa met his counterparts and agreed to come together, and as a transport minister I will be following up on those policies as we build on the one-stop border concept.”
The Zimbabwean government owned Herald newspaper announced that,“completion of the Kazungula rail road bridge will in fact see Zimbabwe having a share in revenue from the infrastructure as Botswana and Zambia have agreed that the country must have the same facilities of a one-stop border post as is in their countries.”
As part of the agreement, Zimbabwe was to fund the architectural work needed for any changes to the project, fund the construction work for adjustments, and use the same contractor, Daewoo.
In April 2021, with the bridge now completed, Botswana and Zambia, without Zimbabwe, concluded a bilateral agreement on the running of the facility.
MNANGAGWA PAINTS HIMSELF INTO A CORNER
A few weeks later on 5th May 2021 Mnagagwa claimed that, “Zimbabwe came on board the project and the bridge is now owned by three countries. His spokesman, George Charamba, announced that a “short stretch” from Kazungula to Victoria Falls is “about to start”. As it turned out, Mnagagwa was not telling Zimbabweans the truth. Zimbabwe’s involvement in Kazungula never went beyond its role in the One-Stop Border post at the site. There is no evidence, either in the last two budgets or in other disclosures, to show that Zimbabwe paid its way into the project as claimed. None of the communication put out by Botswana on the commissioning of the bridge mentions Zimbabwe as a participant. Unsurprisingly, the question of whether Zimbabwe is part of the project or not has become political fodder among Mnangagwa’s opponents. Muscling in on the Kazungula bridge project would thus be a double-bagger for the embattled Zimbabwean president: silence his political opponents while ensuring a flow of the much needed foreign currency for his country.
Zimbabwe has in the past tried to frustrate the Kazungula Bridge project by refusing to free up those 100 metres of marsh for the construction of the multi-million dollar Bridge.
In the original design, the Bridge span was to overpass Zimbabwean territory, curving eastwards. This design was made when Mnangagwa was Robert Mugabe’s Vice President.
Alongside Botswana and Zambia, Zimbabwe was part of the project at conception stage but upon failing to mobilise the required funds, decided to drop out. In April 2014, a ZANU-PF MP, Felix Tapiwa Mhona, wanted the Minister of Transport and Infrastructure, Obed Mpofu, to explain the government’s position on a project that he deemed detrimental to the country’s economic fortunes.
“There is a bridge that is being constructed between Botswana and Zambia known as Kasane Bridge,” the MP prefaced his question, using the wrong name for the bridge. “What is the government policy in place so as to counter this conspiracy whereby you are going to see traffic bypassing our Beitbridge, which is the gateway to southern Africa, consequently impacting negatively on our revenue?”
First describing Mhona’s question as “very important”, Mpofu stated that since there was no border between Botswana and Zambia, construction of the bridge was impossible.
“Our understanding is supported by the United Nations on boundaries; that there is no boundary between Botswana and Zambia. If they want to build a bridge on that piece of land, Zimbabwe has to be involved,” the minister said.
It would seem that the question and answer were a pre-arranged charade to publicly send a message to both Botswana and Zambia – which message the two countries received loud and clear. Zimbabwe had hoped that the project would collapse if it withdrew from it – and that almost happened. Fortunately, the partners came up with a Plan B – which Botswana’s former Minister of Transport and Communications, Nonofo Molefi, has detailed to Sunday Standard. Upon hearing Mhona-like talk from other Zimbabwean politicians, Botswana and Zambia decided to make changes to the design plan.
“We approached Namibia and asked that the bridge pass through their territory and they agreed,” Molefi said.
The result was that instead of going straight into Zimbabwe from Botswana as had been the original plan, the bridge now curves westwards into Namibian territory, then makes a landfall in Zambia.
