How we source and verify
Construction Marketbook reports on Zimbabwe's construction industry. This page explains where our information comes from, how it is checked, and what you can hold us to.
Where our information comes from
We monitor primary sources rather than reporting on other outlets' reporting. That means government ministries, the Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe, the Government Gazette, the Environmental Management Agency, local authorities, state-owned enterprises, listed-company disclosure, development finance institutions, and the companies themselves.
Every source we monitor is recorded in an internal registry with its access method, how often we check it, and the terms under which we may use it. We do not crawl a source until those terms have been reviewed by a person.
We do not republish other people's work
When our monitoring finds something newsworthy, what we store is a pointer: a headline, a link and a short extract for our editors to triage. We do not copy source articles into our system and we do not publish them.
Every story is written originally by our desk, and every story cites its sources with a link back to the original. If we cannot verify something against a primary source, we either say so explicitly in the story or we do not run it.
How we use AI
We use AI tools to help draft stories from verified source material. We do not publish AI output unreviewed.
Every story passes through a human editor before it goes live — this is enforced by our publishing system, not by convention. An editor checks the facts against the primary source, adds the context and analysis, and takes responsibility for what is published under our name.
Prices and market data
Material prices are collected from suppliers, builders' merchants, contractors and quantity surveyors. They are indicative market observations, not quotations, and they vary by supplier, quantity, location and payment terms.
Where we have too few submissions in a given week, the figure is marked as an estimate rather than presented as observed. Every index we publish has a methodology page explaining exactly how the number is calculated.
Advertising and sponsored content
Sponsored articles and press releases are labelled as such at the top of the page, are excluded from our news feeds and sitemaps, and use link attributes that prevent them passing search authority.
Advertisers and marketplace customers receive no influence over editorial coverage. Being a paying customer neither earns favourable coverage nor prevents critical coverage.
Corrections
We correct errors promptly and visibly. Where a correction materially changes the meaning of a story, we note the correction on the story itself rather than editing it silently.
If you believe we have published something inaccurate, contact us with the detail and a source, and we will review it.
Request a correction
Tell us what is wrong, which story it is on, and what the correct information is. Our full corrections policy sets out how we handle it.
Contact the newsroom