Professor Mandivamba Rukuni briefly explained the project to dismantle a dual economy in Zimbabwe by creating rural industrialisation. He said there is really no industrial base in the urban areas. Rural poverty is migrating to the cities, where it has more political potential. He spoke of the need to create a rural middle class, but defined that as a person earning more than US$4 per day! He said that the Mnangagwa government’s infrastructure renewal has been positive, but has not yet connected to the rural poor. The urban economy is based on trading in imports and exports, and the traders have become very rich, he explained. Zimbabwe, and Africa more broadly, compares poorly with the industrialised Asian countries.
Prof Rukuni said that more primary production and more processing of these products in rural areas and greater consumption in rural areas should come first, before more production is sold into the cities.
He said that the proposed Rural Industrial Innovation Parks or Hubs would provide new capacities:
- More renewable energy
- More bore water
- Unlimited bandwidth for digital education
- A Rural Academy
- Women would have a leading role especially in expanded rural tourism
- Improved health and education services.
This is an investment framework rather than a development aid framework.
Government would really help progress this if it created a policy pilar called “rural industrialisation”, the professor argued.
Prof Rukuni is also responsible for land title deeds and he argued that the farmers need these title deeds to constrain land use conversion by rural councils. Provision of title deeds is also a promise of good service provision to rural communities. He also argued that this vision requires the creation of a community banking system.
Senator Sekai Holland, whose Zimbabwe Peacebuilding Initiative is in partenrship with Professor Rukuni's Barefoot Education Africa Trust (BEAT), urged progress on an agreement between Australia's TAFE sector and BEAT to train Zimbabweans in Australia to provide skills for managing the proposed Industrial Innovation Parks. Prof Rukuni said that if he received a letter in these terms from TAFE then he would get the Zimbabwe Council of Higher Education (ZIMCHE), which he heads, to negotiate an MOU for this and scope out a program.
