Manufacturing Economy of Zimbabwe: Introduction

The manufacturing economy of Zimbabwe was in 1980 inherited from Rhodesia; which economy was designed to favour European settlement around the country and developments across Southern Africa, with the railway line from Cape Town to Harare being a key infrastructural development that influenced the distribution of industries and thus labour and settlements along the central, Highveld regions of Zimbabwe.
Established to support developments in mining and agriculture, manufacturing developed in the early 1940s to become a bigger contributor to the gross value of output than both agriculture and mining combined. These post-World War two years saw a rapid growth in the Southern Rhodesia’s manufacturing sector, with considerable investment from South Africa and the United Kingdom into manufacturing.
In the decades that would follow, a series of political and economic systems, coupled with the influence of foreign nations, particularly in the form of embargoes and sanctions, changed and significantly affected, both positively then latterly negatively, the manufacturing economy of Rhodesia and Zimbabwe respectively.
Present day Zimbabwe, having, 30 years ago, inherited a stable manufacturing economy, which was however predominated by a minority, reals in a situation of turmoil, with productive capacity utilisation hovering well below 50% and the cost of production being so high that imports offer a more cost effective source than locally produced goods.
Several attempts, through policies such as the Economic Structural Adjustment Program, ESAP, Zimprest, Short Term Economic Revival Program, STERP, etc, have, since 1980, been put into effect to get Zimbabwe’s economy on track, with success only ever being to the effect of stabilising the economy in the short-term, if at all.
Reflecting on the productive sector of Southern Rhodesia and Zimbabwe, concerted effort and purposeful planning is required to ensure the revival of Zimbabwe’s manufacturing economy; which spurred the country into the position of the breadbasket of Southern Africa, and supported the once thriving mining industry.
Present day Zimbabwe’s economy stands on a much more diversified foundation, with tourism and other service industries, which rely less on manufacturing, contributing significantly to the Gross Domestic Product of the nation. Nevertheless, manufacturing is still a very important factor in the equation of Zimbabwe and for that reason, effort is placed on studying and developing recommendations for the revival of Zimbabwe’s manufacturing economy.

Historic perspective
As with many countries around the world, Southern Rhodesia experienced a significant boom following World war two. This era is widely credited for its contributions to technological innovation, and Southern Rhodesia benefitted its fair share from this.
The occupation of the territory
The occupation of the territory between the Limpopo and Zambezi in the 1890s spurred by prospects of rich gold finds, and subsequent establishment of gold and coal mines around the country stimulated modern industry which progressed from mining to manufacturing and finally services. The colonisation of this territory resulted from the prospect of vast gold reserves in Zimbabwe, a premise which was largely exaggerated by myths. When the settler column came to realise that the gold deposits in the territory fell far short of expectation, attention soon turned to other economic elements to help Rhodes and the BSAC recover their investments. Nonetheless, mining took place and the labour that was required to undertake this lead to a growth in demand for food, starting the agricultural economy of Southern Rhodesia. With the increased demand for food, and increasing output in the mines, manufacturing became necessary to supply the implements to sustain both mining and agriculture. In the early days, and for the better part of the colonial days, the major part of manufacturing’s raw materials came from the mining and agricultural sectors, setting Rhodesia up to be an independent economy. Having developed infrastructure in the extractive and agricultural sectors for the consistent supply of raw materials , as well as in manufacturing for the processing and production of end-user goods, as well as the setup of banking and other support institutions placed Rhodesia in a position to sustain the onslaught of economic sanctions and embargoes that would be placed on the settled regime, as well as the impact of the protracted war of liberation that brought about the birth of Zimbabwe in 1980.
While manufacturing was the fastest growing productive sector in Southern Rhodesia in the years that followed World War Two, the contribution of manufacturing’s value add to the overall economy stood at only 20% (1949 – 1957). The period after World War Two was however very important to the economy of Southern Rhodesia in that the growth of the manufacturing sector which exceeded output in both the extractive and agricultural sectors served to better balance the economy and make the economy less susceptible to environmental forces at play in the economy.
What follows seeks to assess the viability of the manufacturing economy of Zimbabwe and to determine its importance in safeguarding the integrity/ sovereignty/ independence of Zimbabwe.