Ministry Of Transport Apologises For False Claims On Victoria Falls Road after Being Accused Of Corruption

Zimbabwe Transport Ministry In Hot Water Over False Victoria Falls Road Claim

The Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development in Zimbabwe has issued an apology after it posted incorrect information on social media, falsely claiming that contractors were already on site for the Victoria Falls Road project. The apology came after social media users, including investigative journalist Hopewell Chin’ono, accused the government of corruption in the tender process.

“The Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development wishes to unreservedly apologise to members of the public and all its stakeholders,” read a statement posted on 29 April 2025.

The original tweet, published at 9:18am on 29 April, stated that “all eight contractors involved in the project are now on site.” But this claim was false — the tender process had not even closed at the time.

Chin’ono: “They were exposing how corrupt Mnangagwa is”

Hopewell Chin’ono reacted strongly to the false claim on X (formerly Twitter), saying the government had exposed itself.

“They floated a tender for the repair of the Bulawayo–Victoria Falls Road, and the closing date for this tender process is today, 29 April 2025,” he posted.

“Yet… the Ministry of Transport’s Twitter handle [says] all the contractors are already on site.”

Chin’ono said this could only mean one thing:

“Mnangagwa gave the tender to his cronies in exchange for kickbacks and bribes!”

He went further, suggesting there may be whistleblowers inside the Ministry:

“Perhaps tweeting this is a deliberate move by progressive people inside the regime who are fed up with Mnangagwa’s shameless public procurement criminal cartels.”

Ministry blames internal breach

In a formal retraction issued later the same day, Permanent Secretary Eng. P.J. Makumbe clarified the actual state of affairs.

“The Ministry acknowledges that no contractor is on site, as the tender process is still ongoing.”

The Ministry explained that the tweet was posted without verification from technical officials:

“One of the officers… acknowledged that she breached the internal Standard Operating Procedures of information verification.”

The tender, issued on 17 April, closed at 11:00am on 29 April 2025. According to the Ministry:

“An evaluation committee will sit, whereupon the outcome will be sent to the Special Procurement Oversight Committee before awarding the same to successful bidders.”

Despite the mix-up, the Ministry stressed its commitment to transparency: