CMED, Proof That Institutions Die When Engineers Are Ignored

The Central Mechanical Equipment Department (CMED) is one of the most strategically important institutions Zimbabwe has ever built, yet few Zimbabweans today understand its true national value. At its peak, CMED was not merely a fleet provider, it was the engineering backbone of the State, anchoring national development, disaster response and infrastructure delivery.

CMED was designed to own, maintain and engineer the country's heavy-duty motor and earth-moving equipment on behalf of government. Roads, dams, irrigation schemes, airports, power stations, mining support and civil protection all depended on a strong CMED. It was a national asset meant to reduce reliance on expensive foreign contractors, build local engineering capacity and retain skills within the public sector.

Yet over time, a tragic misunderstanding of CMED's mandate took hold. Instead of strengthening CMED as a strategic engineering institution, leadership without engineering vision reduced it to a driving school and a commuter bus company, mistakenly believing this was "doing business". The focus shifted to bus routes, driving lessons and short-term cash flow, while the real value heavy plant engineering, fleet standardisation, refurbishment, manufacturing support and national logistics was ignored.

This was not just a management failure, it was a failure of understanding. CMED was never meant to compete with kombis or private driving schools. It was positioned to dominate the motor and earth-moving equipment engineering space, supporting every ministry, local authority and state enterprise. With the right leadership, CMED could easily have become the country's largest plant-hire authority, a refurbishment hub for graders, bulldozers and excavators and a training ground for artisans, mechanics and engineers.

The decline deepened because CMED boards were often chaired by individuals with no engineering, logistics or fleet-management background. Without technical insight, decisions were driven by short-term revenue thinking rather than strategic national impact. Assets were run down, workshops weakened, spares procurement collapsed and skilled engineers left.

The turning point came when an engineer finally chaired the board. For the first time in years, CMED began to be viewed not as a bus operator, but as a strategic engineering institution. An engineer understood that CMED's true power lay in systems, maintenance cycles, asset life-extension, standardisation and economies of scale. The conversation shifted from "how many passengers are we carrying" to "how many kilometres of road can we open, how many dams can we support and how much foreign currency can we save?"

CMED is uniquely positioned. It can support the Ministry of Transport, local authorities, ZINARA, agriculture, mining, civil protection and even defence logistics. No private company can match its nationwide footprint, workshops or potential fleet size if properly managed.

Zimbabwe's infrastructure challenges are not a lack of money alone, they are also a lack of institutional thinking. Countries that develop do not outsource everything. They build strong state engineering institutions that partner intelligently with the private sector.

Reviving CMED is therefore not nostalgia, it is economic logic. A functional CMED means cheaper road construction, faster disaster response, reduced equipment hire costs and skills retention. It also means accountability because government owns the assets.

institutions matter and who leads them matters even more. When CMED was led without engineering vision, it shrank into irrelevance. When engineering thinking returned, its strategic importance became obvious again.

Zimbabwe cannot industrialise, modernise or rebuild infrastructure without reclaiming CMED's original purpose. Treating it like a commuter bus company was a national mistake. Restoring it as an engineering powerhouse is a national necessity.

Thank you, Madam Chair for leading from the front Dr Engineer Tammy Stevenson.

Engineer Jacob Kudzayi Mutisi
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