malvernmugadzikwa
Tapiwanashe Mangwiro
Zimbabwe has been hit by perennial infrastructural inefficiencies that have continued to affect residents and businesses and retailers believe these inadequacies have increased costs to their operations by 40 percent.
Key national infrastructure and major economic enablers such as roads have been neglected for decades, water provision and garbage collection are rare in some parts of the country, with some suburbs now going for about four months without running water.
Lack of such key facilities have led retailers to look for expensive alternatives such as buying clean bulk water for operations and using generators to power their operations.
Some retailers and shopping complexes have resorted to hiring or buying own refuse trucks (such as Sam Levy Complex) to ensure they operate on clean environs and help curb diseases.
Denford Mutashu, the president of the Confederation of Zimbabwe Retailers said: “The defects are a problem for our members, the roads are dilapidated, water and sewage reticulation and piling garbage are causing problems to our operations.”
“Effectively, the amount of decay on the infrastructure has increased our cost of operating by about 40 percent and then makes it difficult to operate with a cost to revenue ratio of about 60 percent,” Mutashu said.
Government has been working on the major road networks in major towns and cities, through the Emergency Road Rehabilitation Programme (ERRP II), but retailers feel that the local councils are doing them a disservice with the roads in the residential areas.
In as much as roads leading to major cities passing through smaller towns are under care, the retailers are concerned with mainly feeder roads into suburbs, where most of their businesses are situated, which have largely remained abandoned by the local authorities.
“Some of the suppliers are refusing to deliver into the high density suburbs to the small and medium enterprises, and that means they now need to find transport to collect the goods and that increases their operational cost,” said Peggy Rambanepasi, chairperson of the Retailers Association of Zimbabwe.
The retailers, however, said much of the new cost pressures were stemming out of the switch to expensive diesel-powered generators, as state-run power producer, ZESA, battles to keep its ageing plants running.
“The power cuts are disturbing operations and companies have made serious losses as some of the products have to be thrown away after going bad in storage caused by unplanned power disruptions,” Rambanepasi added.
“The current load shedding schedule is a huge set back to business and consumers’ expectations since power supply is a critical enabler and a driver of economic development and the current supply bottlenecks hurt business,” Mutashu said.
Economist commentator, Prosper Chitambara, said with such power shortages as currently experienced throughout the country, some of the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1)’s objectives will remain a pipe dream because little can be achieved in an energy scarce environment.
“NDS1 seeks to facilitate the achievement of an e-enabled economy wherein sectors make use of information communication technology to improve efficiency in line with the global trends but with such a load shedding schedule, attainment of such objectives becomes very difficult,” Chitambara said.
The country continues to suffer from infrastructural challenges and the retail sector according to Mutashu said they only wish for the local councils to run the cities and towns in a professional manner.
Water and sewerage reticulation should not be an extra cost for business when they already pay rates for these services.
Bongani Ndlovu