adminpreference of quality goods and services.
When Buy Zimbabwe was launched in 2011, one of the central debates was on whether the national initiative should adopt “Proudly Zimbabwean” as its official motto and register it as a trademark of the campaign.
However, delegates at the inaugural conference raised two key concerns that with hindsight appear to have been quite insightful.
The first was that we were wary of being seen as copycats of the “Proudly South African” campaign. The second concerned legal loopholes that were likely to be encountered over the use of the term, which on the surface says the right things but is potentially open to various interpretations and uses.
Based on these views, it was accepted that while one of the central objectives of Buy Zimbabwe was to instil a sense national pride, “Proudly Zimbabwean” would not be used as an official motto but rather adopted as a general part of the initiative.
From that acceptance, a grouping of stakeholders in business and Government proceeded to adopt Buy Zimbabwe as the official name of the campaign, with its unique motto, registered insignia and a focus on creating pride, wealth and jobs for our beloved nation of Zimbabwe.
To ensure that Buy Zimbabwe was not abused, the associated insignia was defined to carry distinctive attributes for companies and products that would qualify to use the symbol. In essence while any individual, organisation or company could be part of the programme, use of the insignia was restricted only to products, services and organisations that meet stipulated criteria.
A product, service or company had to be certified by a recognised certification body, be environmentally compliant, carry minimum local content threshold of 10 percent and finally be registered in Zimbabwe as well compliant to local labour laws.
Only after passing this criterion would a company qualify to use the Buy Zimbabwe insignia, which is now a legally protected trademark. This by no means meant that Zimbabwean companies or products that did not qualify under this stringent criterion could not be part of Buy Zimbabwe. Rather what we sought was to underline Buy Zimbabwe as a competitiveness driver and not a call to blind protectionism.
Products that did not qualify would be assisted in ensuring that they earn the necessary credentials. Those that qualify would, of course, be used for demonstrations as local champions that should be emulated.
It was reasoned then that this qualification process was necessary for our country to understand that ultimately for us to beat the world we needed to assess our quality and offer globally competitive products.
In addition, the intention was to showcase to Zimbabwe and the rest of the world that inasmuch as our manufacturing productivity has fallen from its glory days we still have some products that can stand out and compete.
Given an almost taken for granted view that the timing of the Buy Zimbabwe campaign is not right and that the campaign should only become active when all material challenges to our productivity have been attended to, it was also key to be stringent in the use of the insignia.
Indeed, one can argue that there is never a time when we should not seek to promote local excellence.
Unfortunately, as our import bill has continued to rise against increased demand for greater local preference, sub-standard local products that do not qualify to use the Buy Zimbabwe insignia and even some importers, have resorted to the abuse of legal loopholes around “Proudly Zimbabwean” by using the motto on their packaging.
In a typical case of deceptive advertising, products that are clearly manufactured elsewhere including some marked “Made in South Africa”, would have the “Proudly Zimbabwean” motto.
Just a week ago our research teams observed tonnes and tonnes of imported detergents and meat products being stocked in a leading supermarket in Zvishavane, carrying “Proudly Zimbabwean” and yet they also bore the “Proudly South African” motto.
At national level, we also know of one leading company, that imports its entire product range and packages in India and then brings it to Zimbabwe, where the products are broadly marked “Proudly Zimbabwean”.
Sadly, we are promoting the creation of jobs in other countries and the outflow of precious foreign currency to foreign manufacturers. And because there is no legal protection to the use of “Proudly Zimbabwean” no need to pass any test before using such term on products and services, we are now seeing the mushrooming of this form of consumer deception.
Buy Zimbabwe is naturally concerned that the increased fraudulent use of “Proudly Zimbabwean” not only undermines the purpose of creating local jobs but creates confusion within consumers and makes them less likely to invest their hard-earned money on anything that is genuinely manufactured locally.
Worse still, local procurement programmes become more difficult to enforce as long as we allow any product to feel they can stack a claim to being local.
We also know of companies that register locally, secure Government tenders on that basis and yet ensure that all products supplied come from companies in their mother countries. If this practice is allowed to continue our country will find it difficult to reduce its import bill.
In the United States of America deceptive advertising is illegal and it’s high time that we ensure that this form of cheating is punishable at law. However, while legal channels are being looked at, a name and shame programme seems quite appropriate.
We look forward to your continued feedback. Till next week, God Bless.
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