Inside the Quiet Revival of Bulawayo’s Textile Industry

There was a time when the Belmont, Donnington and Westondale industrial sites employed more than 30,000 people and clothed half the country. By 2008, most of those mills sat silent. In the last three years, that has begun to change.

Smaller, leaner cut-and-sew operations have moved into the old warehouses. Several supply uniforms to South African retail brands. A handful, like Esikhethu Studio, sell directly to global consumers through Instagram.

“We will never be Mauritius. We don’t need to be,” said industrialist Mqondisi Sithole. “What we need is twenty mid-sized factories of 200 people each, not two mega-mills of 5,000. That distribution survives crises.”

Power outages and forex remain the main constraints, but solar conversion at six factories has materially changed the unit economics.