CAA3 has secured continuity, commerce must now secure delivery

Cde Raymond Mtomba
Last month, the Policy Hub hosted its Inaugural National Policy Expo under the banner of Governance Excellence-Attainment and Readiness for 2030.
The conversations appropriately located CAA3 within a wider developmental architecture. It recognised policy continuity as a foundation for consolidating the gains of the Second Republic, implementing NDS 2, strengthening investor confidence and improving the capacity of public and private institutions to absorb economic shocks. I reflected on these conversations which led me to pen this opinion piece.
Foregrounding my reflections was the fact that Zimbabwe has since crossed a decisive constitutional threshold with the enactment of the Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment (No.3) Act. The country’s governing horizon is now aligned with the terminal year of the National Development Strategy 2 and Vision 2030. As such, the political calendar and the national development calendar now speak to the same period.
That alignment settles one question, while also raising another demanding one: what will Zimbabwe do with the continuity it has secured?
This question is fundamental given that continuity is not, by itself, development. Rather, it is institutional time made available for development. Its economic value lies in the opportunity it creates for long-term planning, consistent policy implementation, investment maturation and the completion of projects whose lifecycles extend beyond short political intervals.
Whether that opportunity produces transformation will depend on the conduct of institutions entrusted with implementation, particularly the public service, industry, commerce and the financial sector.
For some time, commerce has correctly called for stability, predictability and consistency which I believe to be legitimate requirements given that capital is sensitive to political uncertainty, regulatory volatility and short policy cycles.
However, the achievement of greater continuity also means business can no longer position itself only as a recipient of Government policy, waiting for incentives, protection or infrastructure before declaring its contribution.
Commerce must now present its own delivery proposition for 2030.
Corporate strategies should be aligned with NDS 2. Banks should indicate how much financing they will direct towards production. Pension funds should demonstrate how domestic savings will be converted into patient capital for infrastructure and industry. Retailers should disclose how they will increase the proportion of locally manufactured goods on their shelves. Mining companies should publish supplier-development plans showing how Zimbabwean firms will enter their value chains. Large manufacturers should explain how they will integrate small and medium enterprises into production, technology and distribution systems.
The post-CAB3 period therefore requires a new developmental compact between the State and commerce. Government must continue improving the operating environment, maintaining macroeconomic discipline, reducing regulatory complexity and investing in enabling infrastructure. Commerce, in turn, must invest, produce, innovate, employ, export and develop local suppliers.
Policy continuity must be reciprocated with investment continuity.
Nowhere is this compact more necessary than in Bulawayo.
Bulawayo is often discussed through the language of decline, usually accompanied by nostalgic references to its former status as Zimbabwe’s industrial capital. This is a narrative I believe is no longer sufficient even though it may be historically understandable, it is no longer sufficient.
Currently, Bulawayo does not need to recreate the industrial structure of an earlier period. Its mandate is to construct a new production economy that responds to the technologies, markets, natural-resource endowments and regional value chains of the present.
The Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries’ research shows that Bulawayo remained the country’s second-highest provincial contributor to gross domestic product between 2021 and 2023.
Wholesale and retail trade accounted for approximately 33,1 percent of the city’s economy in 2023, while manufacturing contributed 13,3 percent. Manufacturing capacity utilisation stood at only 45,8 percent exposing a fundamental structural weakness.
One analysing these figures will note that they describe a city that is not producing at its potential though it remains commercially active. Goods are being bought, sold and distributed, but an insufficient proportion is being manufactured locally.
Retail activity sustains livelihoods and maintains commercial circulation, but it cannot, on its own, generate the productive depth required for an upper-middle-income society. Therefore, Bulawayo must convert its considerable market activity into manufacturing orders, industrial employment and exportable value.
The city’s reindustrialisation should be organised around contemporary value chains. Its proximity to mining activity in Matabeleland, the Midlands and parts of Masvingo creates opportunities in engineering, metal fabrication, protective equipment, laboratory services, machinery repair, transport and mine-support services.
Its livestock hinterland provides a basis for integrated beef, leather, footwear, animal-feed and cold-chain industries. Its technical institutions can support digital manufacturing, construction materials, agro-processing, renewable-energy equipment and rail engineering.
Bulawayo also commands strategic access to Botswana, South Africa and Zambia. It is connected to the country’s principal road and rail corridors, hosts the headquarters of the National Railways of Zimbabwe and provides the institutional home of the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair. NUST, Bulawayo Polytechnic and the Zimbabwe School of Mines add a substantial knowledge and skills base.
These assets should constitute a coordinated regional production system. Universities must solve industrial problems. Mining companies must procure from local manufacturers. Banks must finance equipment.
ZITF must generate year-round investment transactions. NRZ must facilitate competitive movement of bulk goods. The local authority must release appropriately serviced industrial land and improve the efficiency of business approvals.
The binding constraints are equally clear. Water insecurity, energy costs, ageing infrastructure and limited access to long-term finance continue to affect the competitiveness of Bulawayo businesses. Water is industrial policy. Energy is industrial policy. Roads and railways are industrial policy. Thus, a factory cannot be persuaded by rhetoric when it cannot secure the utilities required for production.
Government’s interventions to secure Bulawayo’s long-term water supply remain essential. However, commerce should participate in complementary solutions, including reclaimed industrial water, renewable-energy systems for pumping, water-efficiency technologies and appropriately structured public-private partnerships.
The city’s infrastructure deficit is too large to be carried by municipal revenue alone. Institutional investors, insurers, banks and major industrial users should help design bankable infrastructure instruments, supported by clear public safeguards and transparent risk allocation.
Local procurement provides another immediate entry point. Bulawayo City Council reported that 71 percent of its tenders and contracts in the first quarter of 2026 were awarded to Bulawayo-based companies.
This is encouraging, but local procurement becomes truly transformative when it progresses beyond routine supplies and begins generating sustained orders for locally manufactured goods.
Government departments, local authorities, mines, hospitals, universities and large corporations should publish their local procurement expenditure and supplier-development requirements.
Contracts should be structured, where legally and commercially appropriate, to allow credible SMEs to participate.
Local firms must also meet standards of quality, price, reliability and accountability. The push for local content does not mean accepting inferior goods. It must mean developing Zimbabwean firms until they can compete on quality both domestically and regionally.
The structure of Bulawayo’s enterprise economy must also be confronted. According to the ZIMSTAT Economic Census, 40,4 percent of the city’s 15 840 establishments were formal. This was the highest provincial proportion in the country, but it still means that most enterprises operate outside the fully formal economy.
As such, formalisation should not be approached as an extractive exercise concerned only with licensing and taxation. Enterprises will enter formal systems when formalisation provides tangible economic value, such as, access to finance, secure operating spaces, procurement opportunities, equipment, insurance, business-development services and larger markets.
Bulawayo can become the national model for a developmental approach to SME formalisation, consistent with the NDS 2 commitment to entrepreneurship, youth development and inclusive economic growth.
The Policy Hub Expo also raised the question of aligning the terms of policy implementers and industry leaders with the NDS 2 horizon. This proposition is best understood as a call to align institutional performance contracts, corporate strategies and investment cycles with 2030. A longer policy horizon must be accompanied by shorter and more rigorous delivery cycles that protect the national plan.
Bulawayo therefore requires a publicly accessible Commerce and Industrialisation Scorecard. It should track productive investment, factory capacity utilisation, export earnings, local procurement, formal employment, apprenticeships, SME participation, water and energy reliability, and the completion of strategic infrastructure.
Every institution claiming alignment with Vision 2030 should be able to show its contribution against measurable indicators. This is particularly important to the Second Republic’s commitment to leaving no one and no place behind.
The post-CAB3 era will ultimately be judged by the material outcomes that follow it. Its success must be visible in factories operating closer to capacity, freight returning to rail, water reaching industrial premises, local firms supplying mines, graduates entering skilled employment and Zimbabwean products securing regional markets.
CAA3 has secured continuity. NDS 2 has defined the national assignment. Government has articulated the trajectory. Commerce must now demonstrate that it is ready for production, investment and delivery.
The national philosophy that Nyika inovakwa, inotongwa, inonamatirwa nevene vayo, or Ilizwe lakhiwa, libuswe, likhulekelwe ngabanikazi balo, cannot be a proposition for Government alone. It is a compact involving the State, industry, labour, academia, communities and citizens.