Peermont changes tune on Malawi’s new hotel
What was seen as a done deal is now crumbling. The South African hotel operator Peermont Global Limited, which signed a deal in May this year with Malawi Government to manage new hotel facility in capital Lilongwe has shown signs of backing off from the arrangement after inspecting the facility and observed that it is below standard for their operation.
Nyasa Times has been reliably informed that Peermont management recently made a thorough inspection of all the buildings that make up the facility and was not impressed mainly with the substandard construction works.
According to an inside source closer to the deal the Peermont group that visited the place found out that some of the fittings and walls in the buildings have already started showing signs of wearing out and crumbling despite that most part of the facility has never been used.
“The team that visited all the structures was not impressed and there is fear that if they go ahead taking up management of the facility it would affect their reputation as an international brand. At the moment the final handover arrangements have been put on hold until a thorough report is presented by the team,” said the source.
The Lilongwe hotel built by the Bingu wa Mutharika administration with the assistance from the Chinese Government was christened Umodzi Park and comprise of an international conference centre, a 130 five-star hotel and presidential village.
The hotel goes by the name of Presidential Hotel, while the 3,500 seater conference centre was named Bingu International Conference Centre (BICC) and the presidential village is called Umodzi Presidential Villas.
Most parts of the facility had stayed for closer to three years since completion without government finding the official operator after some contractual squables in the process.
So far it is only the BICC facilities which have been in use and were being managed by a local hotel chain Sunbird Hotels under the tag of Umodzi Properties Limited.
“Peermont mainly blame the Chinese contractors for a shoddy work on the multi-billion kwacha facility. At the moment Malawi Government has been left with little options on how to go ahead with the management of the facility, it might end up being managed by Sunbird Hotels,” said the source.
Malawi and the South African based company signed a management agreement in May this year and there was an expectation that handovers will be concluded by November this same year for the facility to start operating under Peermont Hotels.
The facilities were built with US$100 million Chinese concession loan payable in 30 years.
With the complex Malawi Government was looking forward to providing world class tourism service.
The choice of Peermont was regarded as was strategic to give the complex internationally recognized brand to provide confidence to the travellers about the destination and improve overall destination’s perception.
It was also envisaged that with such an internationally recognized brand the place would easily attract international business.
Peermont Global owns and operates several properties in South Africa like Emperors Palace and Grand Palm among others and in Botswana they manage Gaborone International Convention International Centre.
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I dont think the reporter right,becoz nobody cannot sign a contract without visiting the premises.
I would like to agree with NO41. I wonder if the reporter of this story has true facts or just fabricating . How can someone sign a deal without inspecting the premises. This is a contract and before it was signed it meant the company going to ran the hotel were full satisfied with facilities before putting pen to paper. Mind you this is an international deal, not what you do when you have drunk bibida at Bwandilo. Please please give us true stories.
Charge paramount 50 billion for lost of busness earning. If it was GoM breaching the contract we could have paid billions.
If the structure was built using money loaned from the country where the contractors came from, after completion was there a proper handover done and did the Malawi government engage her qualified engineers who sanctioned the viability of the end product? My other worry is that after construction this building was left unoperational for sometime, are Malawians so naive not to discern that an unoccupied building gets dilapidated faster than the one that is being used? The previous government was playing hide and seek by trying to bring in operatives of their choice who could help them in siphoning proceeds… Read more »
Garbage In garbage out.
Shoddy deals 5 or 10 more years under the DPP government is just another waste of Malawians precious time and resources to hell with their cosmetic development agenda
I pray that the parliamentarians will start proposing and authorising more useful loans than mere beautifying the cities with mediocre chinese built buildings. Why cant we get a loan for sourcing water from the lake and shire river for our cities, as the water supply in these cities is inadequate despite having big fresh water bodies across the country. Lets now invest for the long term, not short term.
Bingu new kuti anamanga zosalimba komanso kuba za mbiri thats Y anafunisinsa kuti His young bro akhale president now after realising that Most Malawians were not happy with his leadreship style, rendering very almost zero hope for his bro to take up the mantle anathawira ku manda…. He knew about these trouble b4 him MHSRIP
It does not make any sense to me, how could they sign a deal without seeing the facility. Give it to Sun Bird.
Even the design is poor. It is better to have a three-storey building, covering a wide area, thana tall narrow boxy building. I think those who designed Capital Hotel had a better vision, only lacking is innovation and maintenance.