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Geoffrey Nyarota Correspondent
ITALY is renowned the world over as the land of the exotic sports car. Most world famous luxury super-sport brands are of Italian origin. They include the Maserati, the Ferrari and the Lamborghini, all of which have become the ultimate toys of the rich and the famous, who are given to obscene displays of wealth. Italy is also home to more down-to-earth and affordable marques such as Alfa Romeo and Fiat. Both makes were popular brands in Rhodesia up to 1965 when sanctions against Ian Smith’s Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) dealt a death blow on the importation of cars of European or American origin, except for Peugeot, Citroen and Renault, which continued to come in through sanctions busting by France, leaving the highways wide open for the entry of Japanese newcomers such as Toyota, Datsun and Daihatsu.
The newcomers have dominated the market since then.
The Italian motorcar manufacturers were well represented through new car franchise holders up to around 1965 and had a strong presence on the second-hand car lots well into the 1970s. Incar, the official Fiat dealership in Harare, displayed newly imported and affordable Fiats on the spot where Premier Auto Sales now shows off its upmarket Jaguar and Land Rover models along Seke Road, opposite ABC Auctions.
My own dream car as a young university graduate in the mid-70s was an Italian Alfa Romeo Giulia 1.6 Super saloon. When I finally bought my first car, however, it was British-made, a 1965 Ford Cortina GT, locally assembled at Ford Motors, now Willowvale Mazda Motor Industries. It was cheaper.
With financing from Scotfin, it became possible for me, a rural school teacher at the tender age of 25, to become the proud owner of a “brand new” 11-year-old car.
In the 40 years in between my unfulfilled Italian dream and today, Zimbabwe has made tremendous strides in the automobile world. To start with, Fiat and Alfa Romeo are back in Zimbabwe through the Zimoco dealership and, if Industry and Commerce Minister Mike Bimha’s own Italian dream, as prominently splashed on the front page of The Herald on Wednesday, November 11, is fulfilled, Zimbabwe could soon be the proud manufacturer of an Italian-inspired indigenous motorcar.
An image accompanying the ultra-optimistic article depicted Bimha in the act of signing a Memorandum of Understanding with Georges El-Badaoui, Zimbabwe’s Honorary Consul-General in Milan, Italy.
“One of the areas of co-operation with Mr El-Badaoui’s company is the establishment of an entity to spearhead the design and manufacture of a Zimbabwean-made car with potential for export throughout Africa,” the minister buoyantly told journalists after the sign- ing.
He disclosed that Mr El-Badaoui had during his stay in Harare already visited Willowvale Mazda Motor Industries to assess the infrastructure currently in place there. This sounded very much like the proverbial act of placing the cart in front of the horse. Minister Bimha then proceeded to make a disclosure that confirmed that there is, indeed, much uncertainty surrounding the ambitious project.
“We are still working on the logistics of where the plant will be located and which institutions will be involved,” he said.
The primary institution that needs to be identified before MoUs are signed and premises are identified for construction of a plant is the investor in this billion- dollar project. Further perusal of the article leads the reader to assume or suspect that it is, in fact, the consul-general who could be the perceived major investor. The minister talks of areas of further co-operation with the El-Badaoui Group, the primary area being the vehicle project, presumably.
But the areas of further co-operation include “the establishment of an innovation company to undertake research and analysis of the country’s natural resources”. There is nothing specific to the development of an indigenous Zimbabwean car in this statement.
The minister goes on to reveal that the resources would be processed into “final products ready for export to the region and beyond”. On his part the good Mr El-Badaoui says nothing in particular that has potential to allay the apprehension of Zimbabweans anxious to know where the massive investment required for this ambitious project will be secured.
Depending on the seriousness of the proposed project, perhaps this is one area of investment that the Dangote Group of Nigeria could seriously consider as a potential area of investment. This could be a project with much potential for contribution to the turning around of Zimbabwe’s economy through value addition and beneficiation of our vast array of natural resources, employment creation and generation of export earnings.
The promoters of this project need to take two issues into serious consideration, however. Willowvale Mazda Motor Industries, which the Government partly owns, is grossly under-capitalised and under-utilised. The creation of the proposed indigenous car project could spell doom for the long-suffering vehicle assembly plant.
South Africa has a gigantic motor vehicle production industry in which virtually all Japanese, European and American as well as the Chinese, Indian and Korean manufacturers now, have sunk massive investment funds to create a mammoth infrastructure. Yet the country does not build an indigenous South African car. A more feasible first step forward would, perhaps, be to court Toyota of Japan or Tata of India, or both, to build a plant or plants in Harare or Bulawayo.
The El-Badaoui Group is not listed among Italy’s 13 active automobile manufacturers. Neither does the name feature on the non-active Italian car makers’ list. In a bid to establish Mr El-Badaoui’s credentials as an intrepid entrepreneur the Herald article reveals that plans are afoot to establish a food outlet to prepare food for exhibition at the Milan Expo.
“Burgers made from Zimbabwean crocodile meat, zebra burger and baobab fruit juice attracted a lot of attention at the just ended Milan Expo where people queued to buy them,” the reporter enthuses. “Raw materials taken to Milan including herbs like makoni, zumbani and resurrection were developed into high quality liquor drinks.”
Being from Makoni District myself, I was thrilled to learn that herbs commonly found in my homeland were creating excitement in faraway Milan. I was rather dismayed, however, to find out by default that our common herbs such as Makoni tea and zumbani had been developed into high quality liquor drinks without my knowledge or that of other clansmen whom I consulted in preparation for this article.
But I digress from the much more serious issue of the development of Zimbabwe’s first car. Mr El-Badaoui pointed out that Zimbabwe was endowed with natural resources which can be exploited at a low cost. Asked how much, in this happy state of affairs, he was, therefore, prepared to invest in the country, he became evasive, saying he was mostly interested in innovation, not in figures.
Investment capital and feasibility of project aside, the other crucial consideration in the development of the new car is that of the costly design and creation of a prototype, working right from the ground up. In this regard I have a proposal to offer.
Ministry of Industry and Commerce officials could consult Pininfarina S.p.A, an independent Italian car design firm. This company has designed models for Ferrari, Maserati, Rolls Royce, and Cadillac, going back to 1930,
The company is contracted by a wider variety of car manufacturers to design more affordable vehicles. The contracts include designing some models for long-established customers such as Alfa Romeo and Fiat as well as Peugeot of France. Venturing to the emerging companies in the Asian market Pininfarina has secured contracts with Chinese auto manufacturers such as AviChina, Brilliance, Chery. JAC and Changfeng, as well as with Daewoo and Hyundai of Korea.
Pininfarina has, however, of late been struggling to stay in business as car makers increasingly move to engage more in-house design stylists at the expense of specialist design firms. Pininfarina announced only last Thursday that it expects to reach a deal to be acquired by giant Indian vehicle manufacturer, Mahindra and Mahindra, within the next few weeks. Based in Mumbai, this company is one of the largest car manufacturers in India and the largest manufacturer of tractors in the world. It already has a presence in Zimbabwe.
On a more patriotic note, back in July 2015 the Press was awash with reports on an enterprising Mufakose youngster, Sangulani Max Chikumbutso of SAITH Technologies, whose company was reported to have unveiled an electric car as well as a hybrid helicopter in Harare at the same time, remarkably.
Chikumbutso said then that three companies, which were the largest car manufacturers in the world, were after his electric vehicle technology. NewsDay reported that SAITH Technologies shareholder Teddy Almeida had said at the time that the company had received “so many inquiries from various investors around the world and had sealed a number of deals with other companies”.
Almeida was quoted as saying the company was looking forward to working with Government in Public-Private-Partnerships, apart from other initiatives. The innovative ideas of SAITH Technologies appear to dovetail magnificently with Minister Bimha’s plans to create a home-grown Zimbabwean motor vehicle. It is sad that nothing much has been said or heard about SAITH since July, while the Ministry of Industry and Commerce has ventured further afield to Milan, Italy, in a bid to promote its interest in building an indigenous car.
In all seriousness, it does appear though that the gap between bottling Makoni Tea for the Italian market to wash down Zimbabwean crocodile and zebra burgers at the Milan Expo and building an Italian-inspired Bimhamobil (in honour of the minister) 3.0 Litre V6 4×4 Twincab pick-up truck for the African continental market is too wide to bridge easily.
Geoffrey Nyarota is former publisher and editor of Highway Magazine and, more recently, editor of On the Road, a motoring journal.)
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