Moffat Mungazi
Liberty Dube
Business Correspondent
INDUSTRIES in Manicaland have been advised to collaborate with the provincial Government to formulate strategic plans that will enable them to optimise the full potential of their investments.
Permanent Secretary for Presidential Affairs, Engineer Tafadzwa Muguti praised local industries for their significant contribution to the national Gross Domestic Product (GDP) through their viable industries and hardworking personnel during his tour of business entities and projects in Manicaland last Friday.
He visited two major companies, Invictus Steel Africa and Mutare Bottling Company, where he expressed satisfaction with the production levels, before challenging the later to increase productivity.
Mutare Bottling Company is currently operating at 46 percent capacity, producing around 500 000 bottles per day.
Engineer Muguti emphasised that, with the support of the provincial Government, the company should develop a plan to scale operations to full capacity, a feat he deemed achievable.Engineer Muguti was accompanied by Minister of State for Manicaland Provincial Affairs and Devolution, Advocate Misheck Mugadza and other Government officials.
“We are on provincial devolution tours where we want to assess how provincial economies are working. We have the privilege to visit two main manufacturing firms in Mutare. We visited Invictus Steel, where we saw that they are now a major player, supplying products across the country. At the same time, we visited Coca-Cola (Mutare Bottling Company). One of the aspects we are encouraging as Government is that our provincial economies should be run by the provincial Government structures.
“Coca-Cola is operating at 46 percent capacity, and they are already producing almost half a million bottles per day. Now imagine if we can take them to 100 percent capacity. My visit also comes following the festive season, where Government responded to a plea from Delta Group on behalf of Coca-Cola.
We had an influx of smuggled products competing with Coca-Cola.
“Now we are busy looking back and saying as Government, how do we protect our own economy? I think for the longest time, we have been taking our own economy for granted, favouring high profits over sustainability. Going forward, we would rather protect the Zimbabwean economy, jobs, provincial economies so that we can have a national economy to talk about,” said Engineer Muguti.
He added: “So in the thrust of devolution, we have encouraged Delta to work with the provincial Government.
“They must sit down and strategise on how to take this massive investment from 46 to 100 percent capacity, which will see almost 1,2 million bottles of Coca-Cola being produced daily. As it is, Central Government will continue to monitor progress in terms of the provincial economies. We will continue to support and relay back to Cabinet on matters influencing policy,” he said.
Engineer Muguti was elated by the working culture of the people and industries in Manicaland.
“I am impressed by the work culture of people in Manicaland. They are hardworking, and should be applauded for contributing towards the country’s GDP. We are seeing great progress in terms of formalisation of businesses,” he added. Speaking during the same tour, Minister Mugadza said Manicaland’s industry is on a rebound.
“Manicaland is transforming. Our industry is on the rebound. The economy itself is on the rebound. We have seen that the industry is up, it is running, but while it is running at 46 percent, the potential and promise is to reach 100 percent. We know the things that have been hampering Mutare Bottling Company operations, including importation of illegal drinks flooding the market.
We were at Invictus, they are doing steel and operating at full capacity. The important thing is that they are producing in large quantities for the market across the country,” Minister Mugadza.
Invictus Steel Africa chairman, Mr Munyaradzi Shadaya said: “We started our operations in 2017, building on the vision to become an integrated steel manufacturing firm in Mutare. Our thrust is to take our products to all corners of the country and abroad. We are excited because in just a little over seven years, we have consistently been able to do that albeit many challenges that we may have faced. We started with just the roofing business and low forming IBR and Chroma deck sheets, now we have increased our range of products to door frames.
However, under the circumstances, we have struggled to keep pace with the demands of capital required within the steel value chain. The value chain demands significant capital to buy the equipment we use. However, we still have the opportunity to increase our levels of capitalisation to be able to produce at the scale we desire,” he said.
