Organised secondary industry and the state in Zimbabwe, 1939-1979

English: This thesis examines the relationship between organised secondary industry, the state and other economic interest groups (farmers, miners and commerce) over industrialisation in Southern Rhodesia (Colonial Zimbabwe) between 1939 and 1979. Using diverse and fresh archival material that includes minutes and reports of industrialists’ congresses, industrial journals, business newspapers, legislative debates, government and commissions of enquiries’ reports, the thesis demonstrates that this relationship was uneven, irregular and often shifted depending on time and context. The thesis also concludes that the great expansion and diversification of industry which took place was, among other factors, attributable to the efforts of private entrepreneurs. Industrialists galvanised and formed representative organisations, starting with the Salisbury and Bulawayo Manufacturers’ Association (c.1920) which then evolved into the Salisbury and Bulawayo Chambers of Industries (c.1930s), Association of Chambers of Industries of Rhodesia (1941-1949), the Federation of Rhodesia Industries (1949-1957), Association of Rhodesia and Nyasaland Industries (1957-1964) and the Association of Rhodesian Industries (1964-1979). These organisations engaged the state in pursuit of industrial development. Often, industrialists associations’ requests, demands, and suggestions were opposed, if not dismissed, by the government and other economic interest groups and yet, remarkably, secondary industries expanded. By privileging the voice of industrialists which hitherto has been neglected in the historiography, the thesis moves beyond the existing scholarship’s emphasis on the actions of the state in the industrialisation of Colonial Zimbabwe through planning, regulation and establishment of major industries of national importance. While this existing analysis is correct, it is incomplete. Between 1939 and 1965, farmers, miners and commerce, with the state’s support, believed in the supremacy of the primary exporting industries of agriculture and mining in propelling the economy of Southern Rhodesia. The state’s bias towards the primary exporting industries of mining and agriculture manifested itself in its adoption of imperial preference by which it opened the colony for imports of manufactured goods from other parts of the British Empire in return for market opportunities for the primary products. It also sacrificed industrial interests in negotiating trade agreements, thus, depriving secondary industry of tariff protection. Further, the state routinely accepted advice which labelled the manufacturing sector as of secondary importance to mining and agriculture. The result was government policy based on the idea that industrial development was a field of private enterprise, whose growth ought to be voluntary. Industries were left to their own devices and to develop as opportunity occurred. The exception to this policy was during the crisis periods of the Second World War and UDI. Faced with the shortages of imported manufactured goods in the domestic market induced by the interruptions in international trade because of the war, the Southern Rhodesian government realised the imperative of developing local industries. The nascent industrialists seized the opportunity and prevailed upon the state to adopt an active policy to foster industrial growth. At the instigation and lobbying of industrialists, the government agreed, but no sooner had the war ended than the state retreated from its temporary support of local industries, reiterating its avowed policy of leaving industry to its own devices. This policy continued in the post-war years and throughout the period of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland (1953-1963). The other exception was during UDI. Determined to survive under sanctions, the government and organised industry cooperated and collaborated to keep the wheels of industry in particular, and the economy in general, going. In an effort to preserve foreign exchange in the face of sanctions, the government introduced import control measures, which had the consequential effect of encouraging the establishment of import substitution industries which were able to take advantage of the protection it afforded.