Vusumuzi Dube, Deputy Radar Editor
A DELEGATION from the City of Bulawayo, led by Mayor David Coltart, toured the Geo Pomona Waste Management plant in Harare on Thursday to assess its operations as the local authority explores options for improving waste management in the city.
The delegation, which included the deputy mayor, Councillor Edwin Ndlovu the town clerk, Mr Christopher Dube, councillors and senior council officials, toured the site’s waste sorting operations as discussions between the two parties continue.
Mayor Coltart said the visit was informative, but stressed that the cost and affordability of adopting a similar model would be key considerations for the local authority.
“It’s been very useful. This has been a highly informative trip for us,” he said.
“There’s no doubt that Bulawayo needs a facility like this. The critical thing for us, though, is what will it cost, and is it affordable for us? So we have a constructive engagement.”
He said the next stage would involve examining the company’s finances and establishing precisely what it could offer Bulawayo.
“We’ve started discussions with Geo Pomona. We’ve had a technical team up here. Today was an opportunity for councillors and senior management to come and see,” said the Mayor.
“Now we go to the next stage of understanding the finances, understanding with precision what a company like Geo Pomona can offer us.”
The mayor said the council was open to considering a possible contract, but any agreement would depend on the proposal, its affordability to residents and the completion of the necessary legal processes.
“I need to stress on behalf of the council that we are not at all closed to a contract. The issue for us is what is on offer, what will it cost the residents of Bulawayo, and how will we afford to pay for it,” he said.
Mayor Coltart said the visit was an important step in assessing the company’s capacity and determining whether its operations could be replicated in Bulawayo.
“I can’t commit the city council to a contract in this conversation now. I have no such authority. There are legal processes that we need to go through. But this was a critical part of that process to understand what is being done here, how much it costs, whether we can replicate,” he said.
He added that the economics of waste management would be central to any decision.
“You will appreciate that a lot of this comes down to the economics of it. We need economies of scale,” said the Mayor.
According to Geo Pomona, the site had operated as an uncontrolled dumpsite for 37 years before the company took over its management in April 2022. Its operations include waste collection, sorting, landfilling and leachate treatment.
The company’s sorting plant, commissioned on 5 June 2025, has the capacity to sort up to 1 080 tonnes of waste a day.
Geo Pomona reported that it had handled a cumulative 614 144,47 tonnes of waste as at 26 October 2026. This comprised 435 331,23 tonnes collected from illegal dumps, 143 160,24 tonnes from door-to-door collections and 35 653 tonnes from skip bins.
The company also reported employing 1 514 people, more than half of them women.
Geo Pomona said it was open to further discussions with the City of Bulawayo and was willing to share skills and knowledge developed by its engineers with local authorities across Zimbabwe and other countries.
The visit comes as Bulawayo explores options for improving waste management, with the cost of any proposed arrangement and its affordability to residents likely to be central to the council’s decision.
