New dawn as kits to assemble 21 buses arrive from China

KITS for the assembly of 21 buses arrived in Zimbabwe yesterday from China, as Harare moves to reduce the forex import bill and create more jobs through assembling buses locally.

The project will create up to 80 direct jobs but the number is expected to grow with time, while the country will now save at least US$30 000, which was being used to import a single bus.

Zimbabwe, which once boasted of assembling buses in the last three decades, has been battling to do so due to illegal sanctions imposed by the West.

The latest deal to assemble buses is expected to benefit Zimbabwe through skills transfer, with engineers from China already in Zimbabwe to share notes with their local counterparts.

Amalgamated Bus Industries co-owned by four local directors, Mr Kura Sibanda, Dr Leonard Mukumba, Dr Sam Nhanhanga and Dr Shadreck Tiripano, is spearheading the bus assembly project through a US$35 million facility.

Dr Mukumba yesterday confirmed that the bus kits were now in the country.

“We have received containers with 21 kits for buses which we will be assembling in the country. So far 60 to 80 workers will be directly employed.

“As for the next batch, we will be importing 100 kits and employing 400 workers. We will save at least US$30 000 per bus (assembled),” he said.

Mr Sibanda, who is the brains behind the deal, said the project was their own way of driving Vision 2030 that President Mnangagwa is championing.

“We are doing this for our country so that we partake and participate in the engineering value chain of the economy of this Republic.

“In doing so we are tackling the three challenges of unemployment, inequality and underdevelopment,” he said.

Project manager Mr Patrick Munyaradzi said from the original equipment manufacturer to Amalgamated Bus Industries, the deal was in line with the National Development Strategy 1.

Mr Munyaradzi said the buses will meet local standards, adding that Zimbabwe would generate reasonable sums of money from exporting the buses into the region.-The Herald