Zupco under fire over bus imports

The Zimbabwe United Passenger  Company (Zupco) has come under fire for importing buses, which it could procure from local assemblers in support of government initiatives to support local industries, the Financial Gazette reported.

Zupco has always shunned local bus assemblers such as Deven Engineering and Quest Motor Corporation (QMC), preferring to import buses from India and China. Most of these imported buses have not lasted long due to the fact that they are not suitable for the local terrain.

Deven Engineering, a subsidiary of Willowvale Mazda Motor Industries (WMMI), has since folded while Quest Motors is still manufacturing after recapitalisation programmes by shareholders since 2009.

Last year, Zupco imported 50 FAW buses and is currently negotiating to import an additional 290 buses worth US$25 million from India, according to Local Government, Public Works and National Housing deputy minister, Christopher Chingosho.
The development has irked local manufacturers and the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Transport and Infrastructure Development, as it contradicts  government's stated goal to promote local industries.

Moreover, the FAW buses are considered a very inferior brand compared to models such as Higer, Yutong and Zhongtong.
Chegutu West legislator and chairperson of the portfolio committee, Dexter Nduna, had no kind words for Zupco over its failure to support local industries and adhere to government policies.

Nduna who led the Parliamentary committee on a fact finding mission to Mutare to assess the capacity of local assembling plants in a bid to strengthen the Buy Zimbabwe campaign in the motor industry, was informed that Quest had capacity to meet the country's bus demand.

Quest operations manager, Carl Fernandez, informed Parliamentarians that the assembling plant had capacity to produce 800 buses per annum on a single shift and 3 000 buses under three shifts.

Fernandez indicated that the Mutare based assembling plant had a holding capacity of 5 000 kits of buses.

"We have capacity to assemble 3 000 buses a year under three shifts if demand is there. But right now we can manage 800 buses per year in one shift. This is still higher than the national bus demand which hovers around 250," he said.
The Quest director said he had unsuccessfully engaged Zupco management over the last five years to  consider locally-assembled buses.

Nduna questioned the rationale behind Zupco's motive to import buses that were locally available.

"I don't understand why Zupco, for the past five years, has not come here to procure buses. You tell me that you have been manufacturing buses all this time and Zupco is busy importing buses from India?" Nduna asked the Quest managers.

"I really need to get something clear here: Is it a question of bribes that were demanded first in order to offer you (Quest) business? Surely because there is no need for us to go outside our borders to purchase buses when we have specs of a higher quality assembled here," he said.

C&M gathered that Zupco has imported FAW buses for  US$125 000 per unit against US$140 000 charged by Quest.

Adam indicated that some government ministries were issuing duty free certificates to their departments, which lowers the cost of imported buses against those locally procured.

It is against this backdrop that Quest and other local vehicle assemblers have lobbied government to issue a 40 percent duty on all bus imports to promote local manufacturers.

"Our ministries are giving their departments duty free certificates. By so doing, they are killing our industry because many will opt to import since it will be cheaper," said Adam.

"We propose that government issues a 40 percent duty on all imported buses to protect not only Quest but all local assemblers," he added.

The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee wondered at the wisdom of excluding vehicles on the recent ban on imported goods and products that are locally available.