“Zimbabwe doesn’t need more philosophers, it needs millwrights”

Zimbabwe’s ambition to substitute imports and grow local content will fail unless Government and industry map, count and train the artisans and technicians who keep factories and mines running, a local occupational psychologist has warned.

The call by Memory Nguwi, an occupational psychologist and human resources consultant, has drawn support from one of the country’s most prominent industrialists, Busisa Moyo, who says the country’s fixation on degrees has come at the expense of the people who actually get the job done.

Writing on X, Nguwi said the debate around import substitution has focused too much on policy and financing, and not enough on the hands that will do the work.

“Zimbabwe’s import substitution and local content ambitions need a clear plan for the skills that will support production. These are not necessarily degree requirements. I am talking about the artisans and technicians who install, operate, maintain and repair the machinery on which manufacturing and mining depend,” he wrote.

He listed the trades where shortages are most acute: fitters and turners, toolmakers, industrial electricians, welders, boilermakers, diesel plant mechanics, instrumentation technicians, precision machinists, and specialists in mechatronics, robotics and industrial automation.

Nguwi argued that the country needs a proper national audit. How many competent people does Zimbabwe have in each trade today? How many will manufacturing, mining and agriculture need? How many must be trained each year for the next 20 years?

Those projections, he said, must account for expansion, retirements, emigration and changing technology, and be translated into funded apprenticeships, properly equipped training institutions and practical workplace training.

The same discipline, he added, must be applied to technology.

“Establish what machinery and systems industry has, what needs replacing or upgrading, when investment is required, and which skills each upgrade demands. Training and technology investment must be planned together, with annual reviews as requirements change,” he said.

Nguwi said productivity must be at the centre of the import substitution agenda. He called for the strengthening of the Zimbabwe National Productivity Institute so it can help organisations understand, measure and improve productivity, supported by regular, accessible sector figures.

He said he is a strong proponent of a profit-linked productivity measurement model, which separates the effects of changes in input costs and selling prices from changes in the quantities of resources consumed and products or services produced.

“An organisation can make more money without becoming more productive. It can simply raise its selling prices by more than the increase in its input costs,” said Nguwi.

“Profits improve, but the business may still use the same amount of labour, materials and energy to produce each unit, or even more.

“Boards and executives should know which of these is driving their results.”

For Zimbabwe, he warned, lasting prosperity cannot be built by passing inefficiencies to customers.

“For Zimbabwe, sustained productivity growth must underpin higher wages and better living standards,’ he said.

“We cannot build lasting prosperity simply by increasing prices and passing inefficiencies on to customers.

“Serious import substitution requires local producers that compete on cost, quality and reliability, supported by skilled people, appropriate technology and measurable productivity improvements.”

Responding to the post, Busisa Moyo, Group Chief Executive of United Refineries and chairman of the Zimbabwe Investment and Development Agency and the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair, said industry is already feeling the pinch.

“Thank you for that pursuit of degrees has been tyrannical on the quality labour force and people that are actually ‘getting the job done’ in industry,” Moyo wrote.

“One challenge we have faced in industry is getting ‘MILLWRIGHTS’ for high technical and heavy machinery.

“It’s the same for mining and agriculture. The REAL sectors are suffering, and while a degree is more cerebral and appealing, it’s definitely not what we need more of.”

Moyo said institutional design must change to favour technical training over academic routes.

“Institutional design needs to shift more to the Technikon or Technical College or Poly Technic rather than a University,” he said.