by STAFF WRITER
Zimbabwe’s procurement officials have been told to stop chasing the cheapest price and start rebuilding local industry, in a sweeping policy shift that turns public purchasing into a tool for industrialisation.
In a blunt address to the 5th Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (PRAZ) symposium on Thursday, Industry and Commerce Minister Mangaliso Ndlovu declared that the era of procurement as a “back-office administrative function” was over.
“Your pen is more powerful than you think,” he told an audience of buyers, bureaucrats and business leaders.
“Every tender you sign is either a lifeline for local industry or a quiet vote for deindustrialisation.”
The speech, delivered in Bulawayo—once the industrial engine of Zimbabwe, now a symbol of capacity underused—outlined five mandatory shifts in public buying.
They follow an eight-month assessment of Zimbabwe’s procurement system, conducted with the African Development Bank under the internationally recognised Methodology for Assessing Procurement Systems (MAPS).
The full findings will be released later this month by Vice President Constantino Chiwenga.
Local first, even if not cheapest
The most striking directive is a “Local Manufacturing First” principle.
Procuring entities must favour domestic producers even when they are not the lowest bidder, provided quality and cost-reasonableness are met.
Minister Ndlovu insisted this was not protectionism but “strategic developmental procurement”—a deliberate effort to channel public spending into furniture, textiles, leather, pharmaceuticals, construction materials and agro-processing, the priority sectors under the National Development Strategy 2 (NDS2).
Large contracts are to be broken into smaller lots to let local firms compete. Tenders may include local-assembly obligations and technology-transfer clauses.
A second shift tightens use of the National Standard Price List, a reference tool meant to curb inflated bids and collusion.
Minister Ndlovu noted that some procuring entities had been circumventing it with flimsy excuses. Henceforth any deviation requires sign-off by the Accounting Officer, backed by a written economic justification.
The minister reserved some of his sharpest language for chronic late payers. The MAPS assessment found systemic delays, weak conflict-of-interest rules and poor protection for whistleblowers.
“Late payment to local suppliers is a form of industrial sabotage,” Minister Ndlovu said, urging PRAZ to “name and shame” repeat offenders.
Use of the electronic Government Procurement (eGP) system will become mandatory, with legislation already before parliament.
A fifth shift mandates a binding Sustainable Procurement Policy, moving beyond current guidelines. Set-asides for women-owned, youth-led and disability-inclusive enterprises will be treated as market expansion, not charity.
To enforce accountability, PRAZ must now publish an annual Procurement and Industrial Impact Report, tracking local spending, SME participation, use of the national price list and progress on MAPS indicators.
“The MAPS assessment has given us a baseline,” Minister Ndlovu said. “Our responsibility now is to define and demonstrate a clear trajectory of progress.”
For an audience long accustomed to being told to follow rules, the message was different: break them, but in favour of Zimbabwean factories.
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