Online Reporter
Just days after the echoes of Independence Day celebrations faded across Maphisa, Bulawayo has slipped into a different kind of festive rhythm. The flags are still flying, but now they welcome not just memory, but momentum.
The 66th Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF) opened yesterday at the Zimbabwe Conference and Exhibition Smart City (ZICES), and with it, our city transforms once again into the country’s undisputed capital of commerce, connection, and continental ambition.
Under the theme “Connected Economies, Competitive Industries,” this year’s edition is already breaking records: 485 direct exhibitors, 46 international players from 29 countries, and business visitor registrations surging past 10 000 — a 28 percent jump from last year.
To all our visitors, we say, welcome.
Bulawayo has never needed a reason to be gracious. But when ZITF rolls around, our hospitality becomes something close to an art form. The streets are busier. The hotels are fuller. The smell of isitshwala and beef from the exhibition food courts mingles with the hum of business deals being struck in half-a-dozen languages.
Yet this year feels different. There is a quiet confidence in the air — not the brittle optimism of past years, but something harder and more hopeful. Perhaps it is the presence of Botswana’s President, Advocate Duma Boko, who arrives Thursday with a large business delegation.
Perhaps it is the 29 nations setting up shop in our city, from the UAE to Sweden, from Malaysia to Mozambique. Or perhaps it is simply that Bulawayo, historic and resilient, remembers what it has always been: a gateway.
Long before the smart city acronyms and the conference halls, this was the industrial heartbeat of the nation. And this week, that heart is beating strong.
Let us be clear about what ZITF represents. ZITF is the bridge. And bridges, as we know, are for crossing.
The programme is dense, as it should be. Yesterday’s Rural Industrialisation Conference. Today’s Youth in Business and Buyers’ Speed Networking. Tomorrow’s flagship International Business Conference, with Vice- President Dr Constantino Chiwenga as the Guest of Honour. Thursday’s official opening by President Boko, followed by the traditional tour of pavilions. Friday’s Zimbabwe-Botswana Business Forum, the Charity Golf Challenge, and the Minister of Industry and Commerce’s Dinner.
By Saturday evening, when the last stand is dismantled and the last visitor boards the last bus home, Bulawayo will be tired. But we will also be proud. Because for one week each year, our city reminds the nation — and the continent — what it means to be a hub.
The Independence Day celebrations in Maphisa honoured our past.
ZITF 2026 builds our future.
So, come. Walk the halls. Taste the food. Strike the deal. And when you leave, take a piece of Bulawayo with you — not just a catalogue or a sample, but the knowledge that this historic city is not done making history.
