Online Reporter
THE scene at Forbes Border Post this week was one of controlled chaos. A long convoy of haulage trucks, laden with precious lithium and chrome, was halted in its tracks. Drivers, armed with what they believed to be all the necessary documentation, were turned back.
The queue that snaked along the road to Mutare was not just a traffic jam; it was a powerful visual representation of a fundamental shift in Zimbabwe’s economic philosophy.
As of Wednesday, the Government, through Mines and Mining Development Minister Dr Polite Kambamura, enforced the suspension of raw lithium and other mineral exports. For decades, this scenario, trucks with our unprocessed wealth heading for the Indian Ocean, has been the norm. But under the Second Republic, the norm is no longer acceptable. This ban is a bold, necessary, and long-overdue declaration of economic sovereignty.
For too long, Zimbabwe has played the role of a raw material provider in the global economy. We have watched as our lithium, a mineral now more valuable than oil in the race for green energy, is shipped out to be processed elsewhere, only to be sold back to us as expensive batteries and electronic components.
This extractive model has left us with depleted resources, limited jobs, and a fraction of the potential revenue. The sight of truck drivers awaiting instructions marks the end of that road.
This is not a trade barrier; it is a development strategy. President Mnangagwa has consistently championed the mantra that Zimbabwe’s resources must benefit all its citizens. The ban on raw lithium exports is the most tangible expression of that vision to date.
It signals a firm departure from extraction to beneficiation, a shift from digging and shipping to processing and value addition. It means that the jobs created from our lithium will be jobs for Zimbabweans in Zimbabwe. The industries built will power our own industrialisation.
Critics may point to the immediate disruption. The congestion at the border and the confusion among haulage drivers are temporary growing pains. Shipping and Forwarding Agents Association of Zimbabwe CEO, Washington Dube, rightly noted the Government’s openness to engagement.
This policy is not being implemented in a vacuum. It is a deliberate, protective measure of national interests, and as Mr Dube affirmed, the private sector looks forward to contributing to its refinement.
The Government has proven it is a listening Government, and this dialogue will be crucial in ensuring a smooth transition.
However, the principle is non-negotiable. The mining sector has been a cornerstone of our economic resurgence under the Second Republic, with export earnings more than doubling to over US$5,6 billion.
The sector contributes over 13 percent to our GDP and accounts for more than 80 percent of our export receipts. This performance proves we can generate wealth. The lithium ban proves we are finally serious about keeping it.
The convoy stopped at Forbes Border Post is more than a line of trucks; it is a line drawn in the sand. It declares that Zimbabwe is open for business, but not for business as usual. It is a powerful statement that our minerals, our heritage, and our future will no longer be exported in their raw form.
The journey to an upper-middle-income economy by 2030 begins with the resolve to process our own resources. This week, at the gateway to the Indian Ocean, we took the most crucial step on that journey.
Can Zimbabweans with funds then stop buying vehicles and dishing them out to people who don’t need them, stop funding Mickey Mouse businesses like Football Clubs, Church Organisations and Entertainment Activities and channel the funds to establishing value addition factories for our resources? Surely the petty “millionaires” there are in this country can come together and build mineral processing companies, manufacturing and marketing businesses and the like. It is likely that foreign investors will either pull out of mining and farming businesses or will take a very long time to establish value addition factories. Locals must start thinking big if a quick solution to this problem is to realised. Businesses like Manhize Steel Plant should be built by local entrepreneurs with foreign partnership if necessary. How long is it going to take for a lithium battery manufacturing company or a chrome processing factory to be built?