Brand Zimbabwe a hard sell, says business leaders

Former Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries president Busisa Moyo says Brand Zimbabwe is still a work in progress and is facing challenges that require a collective effort to surmount.

"The product is not ready, the country is the product and it is not ready to be marketed, I come from the manufacturing industry we have made a lot of mistakes of launching a product that is corrupt, launching a product that has major microeconomics issues," he told a branding conference recently.

"We are not ready, we cannot open up to the world with the way we are. This conversation is way ahead of its time, we have to talk about what kind of a country we need. We need to talk about consensus building. We have a country to create, the product needs to be created, before it can be branded and marketed to the rest of the world."

"You need the country to grow. We are divided as a country, urban versus rural, manufacturers versus retailers, the country is polarised, you cannot market a product like this."

Norton legislator Temba Mliswa (independent) said Zimbabwe required a lot of work before it could be a marketable brand.

"We need to put a lot of things in order and I think there are issues we need to deal with. The President (Emmerson Mnangagwa) says we are open for business, this means we have to package the product in a way that is acceptable internationally because we are now part of the global village," he said.

"It is a process, from a political point of view we need to accept democracy legislation must play its role, government must also play its role, judiciary must also play its role and corruption must be dealt with."