The much hyped 371 km Mutanda – […]

The much hyped 371 km Mutanda – Kaoma via Kasempa road construction Public Private Partnership – PPP project from gravel to international bituminous standard has suffered a major set back as one of the tapped equity partners and possible funders with deep pockets – Remgro has pulled out.

 Remgro – a firm linked to South Africa’s billionaire Johann Rupert with an investment portfolio that includes investee companies across health care (such as mediclinic), Consumer goods, Infrastructure, f inancial services among others and is listed on the Johannesburg Securities Exchange (JSE) has allegedly pulled out siting concerns over traffic flow guarantees on the road – a reason that is strange as the traffic concerns had been known from start.

 According to a source who is close to the transaction who spoke to the Zambian Business Times – ZBT but whose identity has been withheld due to the sensitivity of the matter, the expected resumption of construction of bituminous standard road has been derailed due to this sudden pull out by Remgro. The bituminous road construction was supposed to start in May 2026 immediately after the end of the rainy season but this has not happened.

Residents and stakeholders from North-Western, Western Provinces and accross Zambia have been reaching out to ZBT to help f ind out when this $330 million Western corridor road project would take off after it was commissioned by Zambia President Hakainde Hichilema at a ground breaking ceremony held in December 2025.

At the ground breaking ceremony, then Minister of Infrastructure Charles Milupi pledged that construction would proceed despite known concerns about such projects reaching financial closure. The source further told ZBT that the use of the PPP model seems to be a big challenge for private players as only PPP that have been financed by Pension funds based in Zambia have taken off.

 “It seems Government through the Ministry of Infrastructure and the Road Development Agency – RDA do not have the requisite expertise nor the experience to make financing from outside Zambia feasible”.

A check by ZBT confirmed that both the Lusaka-Ndola and Chingola-Kasumbalesa PPP roads have been financed by public and government controlled pension funds such as National Pension Scheme Authority – NAPSA and Workers Compensation Fund.

These are the the PPP road projects that have really taken off and can boast of having a better quality finish. Moreover, both these roads have a China linked concessionaire.

 Another PPP road on the Copperbelt which was undertaken by a China linked concessionaire recently attracted public outrage after the road started developing cracks and peeling off barely under six months from time of commissioning.

Efforts to get a comment from Remgro were still underway at the time of publishing, suffice to say that road and transport infrastructure such as rail remains a key missing ingredient in Zambias quest to develop its economy. Opening up of the Western corridor route to fully exploit the potential of trade via Angola and Namibia remains hampered by lack of road and rail infrastructure to facilitate trade and movement of goods.

Article by Justine Phiri