"Failure To Enforce Govt Statutes Stifles Bulawayo’s Industrial Revival"
Joseph Gunda, the General Beltings Holdings Limited managing director, says the failure of the government to enforce statutes regarding the operations of industry was negatively affecting the revival of local industries.
As reported by the Southern Eye, Gunda was speaking on Thursday last week during the tour of GB Holdings conveyor belts manufacturing industry in Donnington, Bulawayo by the Special Advisor to the President Joram Gumbo.
He said most of the problems faced by industry emanated from failure to comply with statutory instruments (SIs), especially Statutory Instrument 126 of 2014.
The Statutory Instrument banned the importation of locally available rubber products under the Open General Import Licence. Said Gunda:
We have been privileged and honoured to have received the Special Advisor to the President and how they have picked General Beltings, which is the key to the economy and Zimbabwe’s manufacturing sector. We are the sole manufacturer of conveyor belts in Zimbabwe.
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play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=co.zw.pindula.newsWe face challenges and a lot of these are emanating from non-compliance (with) statutes that have been placed by the government. We have an SI in place; SI 126 of 2014 which we feel is not being followed resulting in us losing demand for our product.
He urged the government to enforce the SI to protect local manufacturers. Said Gunda:
We have got a low order book with factories on and off because we do not have orders for conveyor belts but we see on the other hand an increase in the importation of conveyor belts and we are appealing to the government to support us in terms of ensuring the SI that it put in place to support companies like GB is implemented.
We believe this company is the anchor to the mining sector, there is no mining company in Zimbabwe which does conveyor belts, and conveyor belts are used in the mining sector predominantly, the manufacturing sector, agricultural sector, quarrying and construction, among others.
We have sharpened our pencils in terms of pricing and we believe we are now competitive against bona fide South African competitors who are our competitors in essence as we are the sole manufacturers in Zimbabwe.
Gumbo said the government, through the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, has come up with several initiatives to resuscitate industries in the Matabeleland region among them the promulgation of SI 126 of 2014, the setting up of a distressed industries marginalised areas fund and the Matabeleland industries retooling loan facility to financially assist distressed companies.
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