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Among the debris of the de-industrialisation in Zimbabwe during the dollarisation era, when just about everything was imported, was our vehicle assembly and vehicle manufacturing industries although these had been running into trouble during the hyperinflation era.

The damage was exasperated by what appeared to be a determination by many Zimbabwean companies and individuals, and even some in Government agencies, who were looking for new vehicles to insist on foreign makes and models and ignore the locally-assembled product. 

Some of that admittedly was because local assemblers were locked into manufacturers who once had the right product, but whose latest designs did not wow the market, and partly because older designs that had done sterling service were now considered a bit passé and not really what the market wanted. 

But for more than 40 years most vehicles on Zimbabwean roads were assembled in Zimbabwe, and a growing number of parts were made in Zimbabwe: radiators, exhaust systems, seats, tyres, hosing, fan belts and many others.

The kits still had the bulk of the vehicle, although engine assembly was started for some types of engine in the 1980s.

Assembly started almost simultaneously at two factory complexes set up by Ford in Harare and British Motor Corporation, an amalgam of Morris and Austin on the long road that eventually led to Leyland.

The car market for the products of these two companies in the then Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland was considered large enough to justify local assembly.

Come UDI and sanctions in 1965 and things changed. Ford, largely Ford of Britain rather than the global company, just abandoned its plant and it was nationalised and placed under the Industrial Development Corporation, where it still lives. 

BMC kept ownership, and that even survived into the post-independence era when it was Leyland-owned, but withdrew totally from management which fell into the hands of the local managers.

These two plants, plus non-British companies ready to break sanctions for a price, kept the rebel Rhodesians on the road. After independence both largely remained as contract assemblers, assembling vehicles for any manufacturer who wanted to hire them. 

They continued to flourish and the queues for their products continued to grow and demand grew. It took some management decisions that looked good at the time, but in retrospect were suspect, plus the hyperinflation to weaken them, and then the dollarisation era to almost kill them.

Willowvale Motor Industries, owners of the old Ford plant in Willowvale, had over the decades picked up a mini-empire in the motor trade, coming to own through subsidiaries agencies, service centres and the like, which is why the company is still profitable even with a factory mothballed for a few years. 

Now with backing from the IDCZ it is planning to resume assembly from August, and bringing the factory back up to scratch by refurbishing and renewing equipment.

It plans to start with pick-up trucks, a utilitarian vehicle where sound design, robust construction and a competitive price are critical, rather than fancy looks and brand fashion. 

But through its other businesses Willowvale has a good idea of what sells, and can now assemble for a proven market. 

It is also planning on returning to that near eternal staple of its business, the T35 truck, although presumably the latest design so far as technology is concerned, again a product where buyers have specific requirements that rarely include fancy looks. 

So far, so good. It also needs to be looking at a suitable mass car, to replace some of the plethora of second-hand imports. 

But that huge import business at least gives Willowvale an idea of what sort of car people are prepared to buy, and again the market appears to desire designs that last the best, and Willowvale can get an idea of what sort of price range they are looking at. 

A new car just modestly more expensive than a second-hand import seems to be the desired seller.

The other assembly business needs to be buses. We are now importing a lot, although of several makes and models. For many years a company called Dahmer used to build, and the word in manufacture rather than assemble, the AVM buses.

Chassis steel, aluminium sheets to make bodies, thin steel lengths to be cut and made into the body skeleton, and Dutch engines and gearboxes were imported, but the design was local, exceptionally hard wearing, and designed for local conditions. 

That also collapsed, through several factors starting with the reduction in demand by Zupco as ticket prices were mistakenly kept lower than what was needed for viability, so the Zupco fleet was run into the ground without replacement. 

The independent companies involved in intercity routes wanted more comfortable buses than AVMs, and the product was not really upgraded to the new standard although that would have been relatively simple. 

A new assembler is now in operation but it is essential, to get prices down, that the industry chooses one or two makes and models so that the economies of scale can push prices of local assembly down.

The next stage is manufacture. As Willowvale has noted, the new Disco steelworks at Manhize will be producing steel sheet reasonably soon, the critical raw material for bodies, as well as the sort of steel needed for wheels and other hard-wearing parts. 

The second input will be the tooling, the double forms needed to be mounted in a large hydraulic press for every part. Here some clear collaboration with a global manufacturer will be needed.

Whether we decide to make petrol and diesel engines here seems problematic. Over the next 12 years the global motor industry is supposed to switch to electric engines, so it seems sensible that Zimbabwe as it moves into engine manufacture makes these from the start. 

We can become an African leader, and supplier, and this matches our desire to be the major African supplier of the associated lithium batteries, so it all fits together.

The efforts now to first restore assembly and then move into manufacture are part of national efforts to recreate a heavy industrial base in Zimbabwe, a base that makes sense when you consider our mineral resources and the policy to add value to those minerals by doing the smelting and the like here, and then use the resulting pure mineral products to make products.