Online Reporter
THE recent warning by Government that shoddy work by contractors would not be accepted, and those performing below the expected standards would be forced to redo the work at their own expense, was a timely reminder that quality is now one of the leading attributes of “Made in Zimbabwe”.
While the warning was issued over roadworks, it covers a lot of other ground, in fact just about everything.
There is no excuse for substandard and low-quality work, not that there really has been.
There are those who have shrugged their shoulders and said: “This is Zimbabwe; what do you expect”.
This incensed many after independence as a totally invalid excuse, and these days cannot be expected in any area.
In fact, when people refer to work done by Zimbabwean contractors, or to products produced in Zimbabwe, the first reaction should be that the contractor, manufacturer, farmer or other producer is doing a first class job.
Shoddy contracting roads was last seen on one of the feeder roads for the large amount of work done to integrate the new Parliament building into the road network.
The Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure Development did not hesitate, refused to accept or pay for substandard work and made the contractor fix it. So we have that example.
Zimbabwean contractors are building up an enviable reputation, or at least most of the top contractors are, with room for newcomers who can prove their competence.
The Second Republic has been repairing and adding to infrastructure for some years now, under the policy of using local resources, needed since Zimbabwe cannot access global concessionary finance, and using local companies.
It was found early in this process, when tenders or at least statements of interest were required, that the local contractors were a lot less expensive that the foreign contractors who thought they had a free ride in our development, and could show physical examples of their work, sometimes as a subcontractor for the foreign firm collecting the profits.
Since then the confidence in the quality of work of local contractors has been justified, and the odd case of shoddy work seen as bad management or profit gouging, rather than as a judgment on the sort of skilled work that Zimbabweans are now capable of doing and doing well.
We are reaching the point where Zimbabwean contractors could be moving to submit tenders for work in neighbouring countries, and in that section dealing with experience, giving examples of work they have actually done and anyone can go and check.
There are still some design areas where the Zimbabwean contractors might have to seek outside support, but we assume that the engineers they assign to these projects are learning and that they will be able to do it the next time without that support.
The same stress on quality has been seen in farming. World tobacco supplies are in surplus, and Zimbabwe is increasing its output, two trends that could lead to trouble.
What has been seen instead is that high-quality leaf sells at roughly the same price as before. The surplus is the lower grades, as can be expected, and so to expand markets we need the top-grades.
As we move towards value added by exporting more of our tobacco as intermediate cut-rag that can be fed straight into a cigarette factory anywhere in the world, or as the final product to sell to smokers in shops, the stress on quality will increase.
In the final clean-up of their fields and barns nearer the end of the season, farmers may well send in the low-quality leaf, and could easily find that the lower global prices are not going to make this product profitable.
In the past, when there were surplus supplies, the junk leaf was even sold as a top-dressing fertiliser for lawns. But with an emphasis on quality farmers will thrive.
Our manufacturers were for some decades the beneficiaries of a lot of protection, largely through the allocation of foreign currency by fiat rather than market forces. When the economy opened up, a swathe were unable to compete with imports, let alone think about exports.
The resuscitation of industry has worked on different principles. Industrialists who can compete on quality and price have been able to regain their local markets, and exports of manufactured products are starting to resume, again built on quality and price.
Offering a decent product that is value for money is the only way forward.
The world does not owe Zimbabwe or Zimbabweans a living. But we do not need any sense of entitlement.
If we produce decent quality work and products, and can meet or exceed market demands on value and price, we will move forward and gain a reputation not just for a particular type of products, but for everything with the label “Made and produced in Zimbabwe”.
That reputation will be priceless, and no one must be allowed to mess it up with shoddy work or products.
