adminBuy Zimbabwe also notes industry’s demand for greater transparency and accountability by public bodies and private companies of their local procurement practices.
Recent developments across our borders also take us to Minister Saviour Kasukuwere telling delegates at the recent Buy Zimbabwe Procurement Conference that Zimbabwe must stop its tolerance of South African agricultural imports and genetically modified produce flooding the local market.
At the same occasion, he also warned that by allowing South African farmers to continue to strive at the expense of locals, Zimbabwe was failing to save much needed jobs and undermining the gains of the agricultural revolution.
Of course as he said these things the minister was accused of being too much of a protectionist, who simply cannot accept the reality of a global world in which rules of free market reign supreme.
Others reasoned quite forcefully, that Zimbabwean farmers were getting the wrong end of the stick simply because they were not competitive enough. Thus until such a time our price, quality and related facets matched those from our erstwhile neighbours, we must learn to live with our situation.
Well it has now turned, there is too much fallacy to this supposed global reality that our South African counterparts who have been simultaneously requesting for Zimbabwe to relax import controls and yet tightening their own are suddenly feeling the pain of their own medicine.
News emanating from our neighbours show they face a real possibility of losing over 100 000 jobs, following the European Union’s decision to impose heavy import tariffs on that country’s citrus produce.
To rub salt onto open wounds the EU has been unapologetic as to the reason why it is taking this protectionist move. It has used the same argument South Africans use to justify why they make it very difficult for our products to enter their markets.
The idea is to protect European jobs and industry against cheap imports.
This EU/SA trade conflict has taken us back to 1996, when the powerful trade union organisation, Cosatu, literally forced former president Nelson Mandela to slap over 60 percent import duty on Zimbabwe’s textile exports to South Africa.
Cry as Zimbabwe did then over the sudden move, not least to say its unfairness, South Africans explained that it was their moral duty to ensure that not only were jobs created in that country but saved, from yes, at the time our cheaper, in current language, competitive textiles.
The South African move is one of the reasons why our textile industry currently finds itself in the present sorry state. Up to this day, a number of Bulawayo companies that existed on the back of exporting to South Africa have failed to find their feet.
Jobs lost in the City of Kings, were a result of our neighbours refusing to reduce their tariffs. The contradiction is that when it comes to imports into our country, we relax rules and allow for unfettered access.
We have also followed with a feeling of powerlessness as Dairibord who have been at the forefront of innovation and have done the right things by coming up with new milk products, only to realise the game is not fair at all.
The group CEO of Dairbord, Mr Anthony Mandiwanza, is on record wondering why foreign milk products (read SA) are flooding our markets, yet, our own are totally forbidden in their markets.
Anyway such is the Zimbabwean generosity that today we watch with glee as Group Five who through subsidiary Everite only a few years back mounted a spirited campaign to boot out Turnall Fibre Cement from their market are now are recipients of local construction contracts.
In their fight to ban asbestos products, they made it clear that Turnall was offering products that were more competitive and less pricey than their own.
Once again the trade unions in that country petitioned Government to protect jobs by ensuring that Turnall products were banned and that the company could only come back after meeting very stringent criteria.
The consequences of the moves are that both these leading companies, that are quoted on the stock market, have been leading pioneers in innovation, have had either to scale down on their employment or forced to reduced staff. Many other local companies have suffered.
As we await the current troubles between the EU and South Africa to fully play out, we also foresee, our neighbours who have now been frustrated out, looking for easier markets.
Quite likely, the few citrus farmers locally will shortly be getting a hiding from dumped imports from across the Limpopo.
Our hope is that with elections now on the horizon, the next Government will have sense to realise that economies are sustained by individuals who are gainfully employed, can feed their families and contribute to the national fiscus through various forms of taxes.
We also need to point out that our trade unions, who are unusually silent on issues that have something to do with survival of their constituencies clearly need to reassess their strategies and stop believing that its only about price. Without a job even that which is supposed to cost next to nothing becomes expensive.
What the EU is doing and what South Africa continues to do to us, we also can do. The key is to be clear of our objectives.
Zimbabwe cannot be the only country that fails to adopt programmes that are targeted at boosting productivity of its companies and protecting local jobs.
If these markets have managed to create conditions where businesses strive without losing sense on job creation, why are we always falling to the false belief that any measure that is pro local must necessarily mean we hate competition.
It’s time we stopped believing the word competitiveness is blind to job creation.
Lets save our jobs, but taking all necessary measures to stop unnecessary imports into our country. The time to Buy Zimbabwe is now. Till next week God Bless.
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