Online Reporter
Nqobile Bhebhe [email protected]
LOCAL technology entrepreneurs have challenged Bulawayo’s skills shortage narrative, saying the city has a deep pool of technical capability that can be harnessed to support construction, industry and a growing digital economy.
Last week, a contracted firm official claimed that they were struggling to find skilled carpenters, bricklayers, electricians and plumbers in Bulawayo.
However, responding to the claims, Hakili (Pvt) Ltd Director and founder Mr Derek Umphile Mafohla said the claims should not obscure the city’s broader technical capabilities, particularly in engineering and technology.
He said the presence of professionals with experience at global companies such as Amazon, Transport for London, Cubic, Sanlam and Vodacom demonstrated that Bulawayo was capable of producing and attracting skills of international standard.
“Serious engineering capability is within Bulawayo’s reach,” Mr Mafohla said.
“When people with that background choose to build from Bulawayo, world-class work no longer requires leaving the city.”
Mr Mafohla said the immediate opportunity was to connect experienced professionals with graduates from the National University of Science and Technology (NUST) and local polytechnics, creating a stronger pipeline of technical talent.
“Bulawayo’s problem has never been a shortage of ability. It has been a shortage of visibility and opportunity. Too many local firms, ourselves included, have not told our story well.
“Buyers cannot choose what they cannot see, so we must publish our case studies, references and prices,” he said.
Mr Mafohla urged businesses and institutions to “try local first” by giving capable Bulawayo firms pilot projects and assessing them on delivery rather than simply their years in operation.
“Demanding many years of trading history shuts out the very companies that need a first large contract. If Bulawayo’s businesses and institutions give local firms a fair chance, I believe this city will surprise a lot of people,” Mr Mafohla added.
His intervention comes against a backdrop of concerns from contractors over shortages of artisans, particularly as the city seeks to accelerate construction and infrastructure development.
Mr Mafohla’s argument is that the existence of shortages in some traditional trades should not be conflated with a city-wide shortage of technical skills.
He said Bulawayo already had professionals capable of developing technology for markets beyond Zimbabwe, pointing to his wider team’s work on regional and international projects.
“Bulawayo has always been a city that makes things, so I would look first at where technology meets the physical economy,” Mr Mafohla said.
He identified cybersecurity and compliance, agricultural technology, hardware and installation services and technology-enabled exports as areas capable of creating employment and expanding the city’s economic footprint.
He called for greater use of internships, apprenticeships, short courses and mentorship programmes to ensure graduates acquire practical experience and businesses have access to new talent.
Mr Mafohla also said procurement practices needed to change if local technology companies were to secure larger contracts and demonstrate their capabilities.
The debate over skills availability comes as Bulawayo seeks to revive its industrial base, with the city requiring both traditional artisans and new-generation technical professionals to support investment, construction, manufacturing and technology-led businesses.
Zimbabwe is awash with highly technical unemployed people. Most of the graduates from technical colleges, Polytechnics and Universities are walking the streets unemployed or doing such activities like roasting and selling mealies by the roadside, selling airtime scratch cards, touting at taxi ranks or simply sitting at home. Besides these unemployed youths, there are thousands upon thousands of able bodied, highly qualified and experienced retirees that are keen to close the so called skills gaps. It is a lie that Zimbabwe is short of technical, financial and business skills. Those who are tasked with identifying and harnessing these skills are simply lazy to do so.