Online Reporter
Sikhulekelani Moyo, Zimpapers Business Hub
THE Bulawayo business community has engaged the local authority over the ease of doing business in the city, with major issues being raised regarding licensing efficiency, regulatory clarity, compliance costs, infrastructure and service delivery among other concerns.
This follows the compilation by the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC) Bulawayo chapter of a report based on a survey conducted in the city to assess the ease of doing business.
The survey responses were gathered from business owners, managers, employees and residents across multiple sectors.
Presenting the report to the city leadership on Tuesday, including the mayor and the town clerk, ZNCC member Mr Jamain Chapfiwa said business licensing efficiency was rated poor by the majority of respondents, who cited delays, duplicate requirements and a lack of integration between council departments.
He said this places a burden on businesses, particularly those seeking to expand or formalise their operations.
“Key challenges identified include: licensing delays ranging from two weeks to over three months, with some respondents experiencing delays exceeding three months, duplicate documentation requirements being commonly reported, forcing businesses to submit the same information across multiple departments,” said Mr Chapfiwa.
“There is no one-stop-shop licensing portal, so applicants must navigate multiple, disconnected council offices. The financial impact of delays includes lost opportunities, delayed business openings, increased operating costs and, in some cases, cancelled investments.
“Recommended improvements include: creating a unified, one-stop licensing portal that consolidates all required permits and licences under a single application, mandating a maximum processing period for all business licence applications and automating licence issuance once site plan approval has been granted.”
Mr Chapfiwa also said the city should immediately resolve the conflation of personal account arrears with business licence eligibility, as these are separate legal entities.
On regulatory clarity and compliance costs, Mr Chapfiwa said that while some respondents acknowledged that regulations are partially clear, a substantial number raised concerns about inconsistency, conflicting requirements and compliance costs that are prohibitively high, particularly for small and medium enterprises.
He said key challenges identified include compliance costs, rated four or five out of five (very high) by the majority of respondents. High costs were identified as a direct driver of informality: businesses cannot afford to comply, so they operate outside the formal economy. Loopholes in the regulatory framework allow non-compliant competitors to operate freely, undermining businesses that do comply and conflicting requirements between departments, together with the absence of consolidated information, create confusion and add expense.
“Recommended improvements include benchmarking licensing and compliance fees against business profitability by sector, rather than using blanket assessments, publishing a consolidated, publicly accessible guide to all regulatory requirements, and strengthening enforcement against non-compliant operators to create a level playing field,” said Mr Chapfiwa.
“Also, introduce amnesty or graduated compliance pathways for informal operators seeking to formalise.”
He added that regulatory challenges are directly suppressing investment in Bulawayo, with more than 80 percent of respondents indicating that regulations had negatively affected their investment decisions, with consequences including project delays, increased costs, cancelled investments and the relocation of businesses to other cities.
Investment impacts reported include project delays (the most commonly reported impact), increased operating and compliance costs, reduced scale of planned investments and cancelled investments, including in property development.
On infrastructure and service delivery, Mr Chapfiwa said two documented stakeholder concerns illustrate the state of infrastructure delivery and maintenance in the city: the deterioration of the Wolverhampton Road commercial corridor and an unattended excavation on Holdenguard Avenue.
He said both were raised directly by affected stakeholders and both speak to the same underlying issues of project completion standards, maintenance practice and accountability for public works.
“A serious concern has been raised regarding rates and taxes levied on commercial properties in certain parts of Bulawayo being higher than those charged in top-end residential and commercial neighbourhoods in Harare, including Borrowdale,” he added.
“This anomaly points to a systemic failure in how the council calculates and applies its rates formulae.”
He also said businesses expressed concern regarding the implementation of parking fees by Tendy Three
Investments (TTI) and the overall cost burden imposed on businesses, employees and consumers accessing the Central Business District.
In response to the issues raised, the City of Bulawayo Town Clerk, Mr Christopher Dube, said reducing parking fees from US$1 to US$0.50 would affect the six-year contract the city entered into with TTI.
He also said setting the parking fees at US$1 was also meant to decongest the city by discouraging people from bringing cars into the CBD.
Mr Dube said when the Cabinet came up with a US$0.50 parking fee, the city wrote a report to the Minister of Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion to clarify the case.
“Regarding TTI and the issue of a dollar, when it was first announced in Cabinet by the Minister of Finance, we made representation to the Minister. I even sat down with the Minister of Finance himself to make him understand that our situation is different,” said Mr Dube.
“Because we have a contract, a six-year running contract, which was approved by the Government.”
Bulawayo City Mayor, Councillor David Coltart, also said there are many other instances where business and the city council can work collaboratively to address the issues affecting the city.
One of the initiatives he suggested was the need for the local authority to make land available on the corridors and invest in a truck stop, which could help remove trucks from the CBD.
The response from the city executives pointed out that some issues raised by the business community can be solved through collaboration, some require policy change and some need central Government intervention.
The mayor therefore said the city management and policy makers need to go through the ZNCC report first, after which a comprehensive response will then be made.
