Source: Speaker Mudenda sounds the alarm on soaring imports – herald
Sunday Mail Reporter
SPEAKER of Parliament Advocate Jacob Mudenda has called for a decisive national shift towards local production and consumption, warning that Zimbabwe’s rising import bill is undermining industrial growth and economic sovereignty.
Addressing the Buy Local Conference in Harare last week, Adv Mudenda said the country’s trade imbalance reflected deep structural weaknesses that required urgent and coordinated intervention at policy, institutional and consumer levels.
“The import bill continues to exert an inexorable stranglehold on the economy, draining foreign currency and steadily corroding the very foundations upon which national prosperity must be built,” he said.
He noted that imports surged from US$4,5 billion in 2019 to a projected US$10 billion in 2026, with nearly US$800 million leaving the country each month.
“To place the figure in perspective, every single month, Zimbabwe bleeds enough foreign currency to fund multiple major national infrastructure projects,” he said.
While exports are expected to grow modestly, Adv Mudenda warned that the structure remained a major concern.
“The export basket is characterised by the lingering thrust of raw or minimally processed commodities,” he said. “This pattern reflects the continued dependence on raw material extraction rather than the industrialisation and beneficiation paradigm shift for lasting economic transformation demands.”
Adv Mudenda said the imbalance had broader consequences for the domestic industry.
“Consequently, Zimbabwe has progressively been reduced to a dumping ground for products from other countries,” he said.
“This insidious practice has systematically eviscerated the country’s industrialisation agenda and entrenched a debilitating dependency that contradicts every foundational principle of national sovereignty.”
Despite the scale of the challenge, Adv Mudenda said Zimbabwe already had the policy and legal frameworks required to reverse the trend, placing emphasis on implementation and national resolve.
“The challenge before Zimbabwe is not the absence of a legal architecture, but mobilisation of the collective national resolve to activate these mechanisms with unwavering commitment to economic independence,” he said.
Central to this shift, he stressed, is a transformation in consumer behaviour.
“Every time Zimbabweans choose locally manufactured products over imported alternatives, they are casting a sovereign vote of confidence in their nation,” he said.
He urged citizens and industry to embrace a stronger national identity around domestic goods.
Adv Mudenda said Parliament must play a central role in ensuring that these policies translated into real economic outcomes.
“The Government cannot credibly call upon citizens and the private sector to buy local if it does not lead by example,” he said.
“Parliament must, therefore, exercise vigilant oversight to ensure that all ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) honour local procurement policies.”
He said legislative action will be critical in reinforcing the Buy Local agenda.
“Beyond oversight, Parliament possesses the supreme legislative mandate conferred by section 117 of the Constitution, which obligates it to ‘Make laws for the peace, order and good governance of Zimbabwe’. This legislative sovereignty must be marshalled to create a legal architecture that purposefully promotes local production and consumption,” said Adv Mudenda.
He emphasised that Government procurement must be leveraged to support domestic industry, in line with National Development Strategy 2 (NDS2) commitments.
“Government will require that a defined proportion of purchases by MDAs be sourced from certified local manufacturers,” he said.
As Zimbabwe pushes towards Vision 2030 targets, the Speaker said success will depend on aligning policy, institutions and citizen behaviour behind a common economic goal.
“What is now demanded is the political will to implement these provisions with rigour and the social mobilisation to enlist every Zimbabwean as a conscious agent of economic emancipation,” he said.
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