CONDITIONALITES
8.2.0 Resultant (construction) supply levels in the industry
As discussed earlier, the ultimate aims and objectives of both the Economic Structural
construction industry vis-a-vis shelter, are the removal of the production-bottlenecks.
The removal of these bottlenecks will lead to attaining maximum production levels possible, from the available minimum resources. At this juncture, validation of these policy measures through testing the sub-hypothesis is necessary. The hypothesis states that "construction supply has increased in the five years of ESAP that Zimbabwe has applied both programmes of structural adjustment and shelter enablement". To test this sub-hypothesis, we take into stock, the amount of construction vis-a-vis shelter that has been undertaken during ESAP's five years and compare the figures with similar figures in periods prior to ESAP to see if there had been a marked improvement in the period under review. It is important to note however, that local construction supply can increase in an environment of reduced local construction demand, if the excess supply can be channeled to exports. The case of Circle Cement Ltd. and the Forestry Commission which have increased production due to increased exports amidst reduced local cement, timber and asbestos roofing sheets demand respectively, illustrates this phenomenon.
Unfortunately, all the three city council surveyed were unable to provide precise figures of the amount of construction that took place in their respective cities prior to and during the Adjustment period. The study will, therefore, use secondary data from the Ministry of Public Construction and National Housing (MPC&NH) and the Monthly bulletins of statistics from the United Nations on the overall construction output and Fixed Capital Formation (GFCF) in Zimbabwe (This information was presented in earlier sections of this study)_ This chapter traces effects of ESAP on the shelter, vis-a-vis quality, quantity, price availability and materials.
8.2.1 New construction works
The field survey found that 85% of the 127 contractors interviewed, 75% of their contracts were new. The demand for new contracts is understandable, given Zimbabwe's population growth rate of around 2.7% p.a. This extremely high growth rate obviously demands new shelter related infrastructure construction to absorb the added population in education: schools and universities; Health: clinics and hospitals; and housing: roads, electricity and water.
Table 8.1: Percentage of work contracts in fonnal & informal sector (1990-1999)
Housing Industrial Commercial
f - - - ------f--- --- --- --- . --- ---- _ _ . _
New contracts 75% 4% 6%
Old contracts 8% 1% 1%
Source: Mucharambeyi, 2000 Survey data
However, massive cuts in the Government bUdget for capital expenditure has meant that pUblic sector demand has not been as high as expected or postulated in Neo-Liberal literature. This is reflected in figure 6.2 in chapter six, which showed that Gross Fixed Capital Formation in Zimbabwe was reduced by 27% in real terms between 1990 and 1995. Although there was a 55% increase in private sector consumption, government consumption fell by 25% during the same period; the increase in private consumption could not be translated into construction demand.
Maintenance and repairs: In supporting the infrastructure maintenance and repair sector of the shelter construction market, it is important to understand this programme in economic development terms; routine maintenance and repairs to infrastructure is more cost effective than the total renovation of collapsing infrastructure. Moavenzadeh (1987, p. 98) further argues that, since routine maintenance and repair of infrastructure are more labour intensive than new construction work, routine maintenance and repair in the construction industry should be more effective in employment creation, which is in line with the shelter enablement paradigm. This should prove more helpful in providing jobs for the unskilled workers and in the use of local construction materials and contractors.
In developed countries routine and construction repairs take up to 40% of all construction contracts, in Third World countries like Zambia and Zimbabwe, the percentage share is still relatively much lower than the percentage in developed countries (Moavenzadeh 1978, p.88). Although low, the exercise goes along way to alleviate unemployment and dependence on govemment poverty relief handouts.
To illustrate the prominence of the repair and maintenance sectors of the construction industry in developed countries, Hillebrant (1974, p.10) has argued that, in Britain for example, the repair and maintenance sector of the construction industry employs more workers than those in agriculture, horticulture, coal mining, shipbuilding, marine engineering, timber and fumiture put together. This is in line with expectations in Zimbabwe that the programme of infrastructure rehabilitation under ESAP and shelter enablement would see a steady rise in the amount of repairs and routine maintenance.
However, run-down infrastructure maintenance and repairs still only account for less than 25% (Table 8.1) of all shelter related construction contracts undertaken in Zimbabwe.
Concern on the low performance market level for this sector is further compounded by the stUdy which found that only 3% of the contractors in this sector, are concerned with road works in townships, suburbs and in the building & shelter sector. Although this finding does not tell us explicitly that very little maintenance and repairs are been undertaken in existing infrastructure, it does give us an indication of the nature of progress in the construction market vis-a-vis new works and maintenance/repairs. It was also clear during the fieldwork that most public sector buildings, especially schools and Govemment offices (including the police service) were in dilapidated condition and in desperate need of repairs. Lack of repair work is blamed on the lack of funds in the government's relevant ministry. It is also viewed that the drastic move by govemment from provider to supporter has left a gap that need to be filled by the private sector.
Clinics and hospitals on the other hand seem to have benefited greatly from donor support under the Health Reform Programme, as most of them are now in a better condition than they were five years ago.
Residential buildings: Although shelter is the main concern of the enabling shelter strategy, it is important to recall that other public services such as water reticulation, street lighting, roadwork and drainage also fall under this category. Prior to 1990 and to some extent recently, the major supplier of shelter in Zimbabwe had and has been the public sector. In the years before ESAP, major housing scheme had been undertaken by
Liberalism and it affiliated policy of Enabling Shelter Strategy, the government through the MPC&NH built houses for rent to senior civil servants.
Civil engineering works: This part of the study is based on roads and water sector rehabilitation programmes as related to shelter provision. They have largely been sponsored and undertaken by donor countries on behalf of the Zimbabwean Government and have dominated the Zimbabwean civil engineering sectors of the construction industry in the past five years of ESAP. The high technology and skills involved in this sector has meant that, despite the visible infrastructure rehabilitation exercise that is taking place in the country, very few Zimbabwean companies have benefited. For example the Chinese Government with their own expertise is undertaken the Water rehabilitation exercise, while the road rehabilitation exercise has been dominated by Department of Roads. Local supplies of construction materials have, however, benefited from this infrastructure rehabilitation exercise. For example, Bituminous Products of Trinidad, and Circle Cement are some of the local companies that have benefited from the road rehabilitation exercise. Because of the nature and usage of high-tech equipment in civil engineering related to shelter, the employment rate is low as perceived by the shelter paradigm as part of job creation.