Zimpapers Logo

Vandudzayi Zirebwa Buy Zimbabwe

AS the economic revival programme continues to gather momentum Finance and Economic Development Minister Patrick Chinamasa last week began his pre-Budget consultative process with fellow parliamentarians and industry in Victoria Falls. Expectations were naturally high that the consultative process would not only enable the ministry to refine its plans but more importantly to ensure that the exhaustive dialogue is put into practical action.

For years, Zimbabweans have gained notoriety for being among the best thinkers and policy writers but slow at implementation.
We certainly hope that Minister Chinamasa, who is known for speaking his mind and for being critical in ensuring that the July 31 harmonised elections are held, will once again rise to the occasion and ensure there is less talk and more action.

In various debates which Buy Zimbabwe team has had an opportunity to participate in, one of the key questions that has always come up is on how Zimbabwe can transform from a culture that excels in recycling resolutions to one where industry and Government hold each other accountable on what would have been agreed on.

After years of putting politics ahead of the economy, we now have a situation where the economy is now the focus of the nation as Zimbabweans are firmly focused on bread and butter issues.

There also seems to be an agreement in most sections of the society that our pro-import policies have done us more harm than good and thus must pave way for a programme that enables the domestic industry to grow and for exports to perform better than they are doing at the present moment.

All these are issues that we hope will no longer be debated endlessly. Increasingly our reliance on imports seems to have grown beyond simply destroying our industry to threatening our health.

Presentations made in Parliament by the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce based on concerns raised by the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa secretary-general, Mr Sindiso Ngwenya, have been to the effect that our “Buy anything cheap from anywhere policy” has allowed unscrupulous manufacturers from around the world to dump hazardous poultry products on us.

There are fears the continued consumption of such products might lead to an outbreak of a disease, which will force the Ministry of Health to divert funding from other areas of need to tackle this.

How sad that our country has not only set aside its standards in the name of opening its borders.
But such is the contradiction in our country that even a CZI conference whose dominant theme was on the need to promote local products and services, has all promotional materials imported from China.

Even the Buy Zimbabwe Retailers’ Conference held at a local hotel had its fair share of imported material.
We need as a country to revisit our practices and we recommit to acting on our words. We are glad that at least the CZI president Mr Charles Msipa has had the courage to accept his own organisation challenges and made a commitment that all conferences to be held will use locally produced material.

Buy Zimbabwe which has traditionally inspected materials used at its conference has also advised all its service providers that its functions must be have 100 percent local material.

We hope Government which accounts for a significant share of conferences held in the country will also make the same commitment.
Although this may not significantly reduce our import bill it would help convince other organisations to follow suit.

Clearly, it should not be acceptable for a country which has one of largest car assembly facilities in the region to allow a state enterprise CMED to write to Willowvale Mazada Motor Industries asking them to supply a Ford Ranger that we all know is made in South Africa.
So far the Government has been silent on this which only serves to compound the problem.

Incidentally while the CMED is still insisting on imports, the South African government is tightening its local protection programme and increasing the amount of rebates given to the motor industry in that country.

Their Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan was on etv’s Justice Factor recently where he announced that plans were underway to increase the 10 billion rands given to the South African motor industry in the form of export incentives.

A number of other subsidies are being considered to increase production, exports and to create new jobs in South Africa.
Minister Chinamasa should work with fellow ministries in ensuring that we reduce the amount of imports by buying local wherever possible.

He has expressed his desire to ensure that industry survives and this is one of the ways in which he can demonstrate his commitment.
At a recent breakfast meeting it was also evident that if importers and retailers allowed to have their way they are less likely to increase their uptake of local goods.

Even Government ministries routinely favour imports in their various office allocations.
It is our humble submission that a minimum local content threshold of at least 50 percent must thus be effected on all Government purchases without any further delay because moral suasion has not worked.

As we wait for the Budget we will continue to remind Government and industry that apart from sanctions our economic problems are being perpetuated by our appetite for imports at the expense of our own local products and services.

The time for talking has come and gone. The time to our local products has come and Government must demonstrate its commitment by prioritising local product purchases ahead of imports.

A starting point is to reverse the CMED pro-import tender as well as completely banning imported stuff at local conferences.
South Africa is longer debating these issues but is already rewarding its companies and organisations for compliance.

Till we meet again God Bless and please let us stop using competitiveness to destroy our industry.
We need to create jobs, preserve our wealth and keep our pride intact.

• Email: [email protected];  00263773751878