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Business Editor—
ZIMBABWEANS are spending an average of $14 million a month on shopping in South Africa as the headache over imported goods continues to dog the economy. The trend has been blamed for killing domestic industrial competitiveness while increasing the country’s import bill presently hovering around $4 billion. Despite increased calls to tighten import duty and surveillance at the country’s ports of entry, the government admits cheap imports continue to flood the market.
“Our survey has shown that 34 buses pass through the Beitbridge Border Post each day carrying women and the youth going for shopping in South Africa.
“We’ve realised that about $14 million goes out of the country every month for shopping.

“We don’t know what the situation is like with those going to Zambia through Victoria Falls and Botswana through Plumtree borders,” Industry and Commerce Deputy Minister Chiratidzo Mabuwa said on Sunday.

She said increased imports and smuggling were creating a vicious cycle of a trade deficit, which has led to closure of local firms especially those in the textile and food sectors.
“The law says we should be importing raw materials only but our borders are porous. Our people have developed the habit of consuming foreign goods, even chickens and tomatoes, when these are available at home,” said the deputy minister.

Apart from individual spending, a majority of clothing shops and food companies including supermarkets are buying their products from South Africa and countries such as China and the United Arab Emirates.

Finance and Economic Development Minister Patrick Chinamasa has said vehicle imports were topping the list of imports to the detriment of the local assembly plant, Willowvale Mazda Motor Industries.

Spirited efforts to promote home-grown products for the domestic and global markets under the “Buy Zimbabwe” campaign are being rolled out to reverse the trend.
The move, viewed as an active competitiveness and empowerment drive, seeks to unlock the country’s potential through a structured aggressive support of production and consumption of local goods and services.

The problem has been compounded by raw materials exports, which are sold at a cheaper rate than finished products.
The government has reacted swiftly through Zim-Asset, which demands value addition and beneficiation as a means of earning more from domestic produce and reducing exports.