Zimbabwe’s Cabinet has approved a $650 million floating solar project on Lake Kariba, and the announcement has revived scrutiny of the Chivayo solar project at Gwanda, a 100-megawatt plant that has yet to generate power more than a decade after its tender was awarded.
Agriculture, Mechanisation and Water Resources Minister Anxious Masuka told a post-Cabinet briefing this week that the 600-megawatt Kariba plant is moving into its implementation phase. A groundbreaking ceremony has already been held, he said. No completion date has been given.
GreenGrid Energy Private Limited, formerly known as Sunspire, is the developer. The Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company is the sole buyer of the power. Masuka said power purchase and transmission connection agreements were signed in 2025, and that technical, regulatory and environmental work was finished in July.
At full capacity, the plant is expected to supply about 3 million people and create 1,000 direct jobs in Kariba, he said.
Nothing in the reports reviewed links the late businessman Wicknell Chivayo to the Kariba project. The questions center on Gwanda.
Intratrek Zimbabwe, Chivayo’s engineering firm, won the Gwanda tender in 2015, in a contract valued at more than $170 million. The Zimbabwe Power Company paid $5 million upfront in 2016. The utility cancelled the deal in 2018 after work failed to start, but Intratrek won in court. The High Court ruled in January 2023 that the contract was valid. The Supreme Court ordered the project to proceed while rejecting Chivayo’s $22 million damages claim.
In September, the power company wrote to Intratrek asking it to restart Gwanda under a 24-month program of works, on new terms that have not been disclosed. Chivayo, who was in his 40s, died weeks later in a helicopter crash near Marondera, southeast of Harare. Six people were killed, including his wife, Lucy Muteke. Civil Aviation Authority Director General George Mashababe has said the inquiry is ongoing.
Chivayo’s brother, Joachim, made fresh claims at the funeral. He alleged that Wicknell spent money meant for Gwanda on luxury purchases, including $90,000 worth of shoes in Dubai. He also said he sold vehicles worth more than $200,000 to fund bid paperwork and never received the $1 million he says he was promised.
Reports of the remarks carried no response from Chivayo’s estate, the power company or Intratrek. The claims are one family member’s account and have not been independently verified.
Local reports say it is unclear what happens to the Gwanda contract now, or whether the $5 million advance can be recovered. Government has not outlined steps to compel delivery.
Masuka said the state will keep up “regular whole-of-government coordination and oversight” of the Kariba project. Whether Gwanda gets similar attention is the question now hanging over both.
