Zimbabwe Is Losing Its People: When Will Government Put Citizens First?

 By Munyaradzi Masaka

9^th September 2026

Zimbabwe is facing a crisis that can no longer be explained away as a series of unfortunate incidents.

From deadly road accidents to rising education costs, from struggling families trying to survive through informal trading to the repeated deployment of police to enforce urban “clean-up” operations, ordinary Zimbabweans are increasingly asking one fundamental question:

Who is government actually working for?

The responsibility of any government should be to protect its citizens, create opportunities, provide essential services and build an environment in which families can look to the future with hope.

Yet today, many Zimbabweans are struggling simply to survive.

Roads that are becoming death traps

The continuing loss of life on Zimbabwe's roads is perhaps one of the clearest signs that something fundamental is wrong.

On 27 May 2026, a passenger bus and a haulage truck collided along the Gokwe–Kwekwe Road. Reports initially differed over the number of fatalities, but police and media reports confirmed multiple deaths and injuries.

Then, in August, another devastating crash near Chivhu claimed 27 lives, according to police and Associated Press reporting. The crash involved a minibus carrying church members and a haulage truck on the Harare–Masvingo Road.

These are not simply numbers.

Behind every death is a mother, father, child, brother, sister, friend or breadwinner.

Every accident leaves families grieving and communities asking whether these tragedies could have been prevented.

Of course, individual drivers must be held responsible when reckless or dangerous driving causes deaths. But government cannot simply point at motorists and walk away from the wider problem.

Zimbabwe needs safer roads, proper road maintenance, effective traffic enforcement, vehicle inspections, emergency response systems, and a public transport system that puts human life before profit.

When dangerous road conditions persist for years, when overloaded or poorly maintained vehicles remain on the roads, and when road users continue to die, the government must answer difficult questions.

How many more Zimbabweans must die before road safety becomes a genuine national emergency?

A clean-up campaign — but what exactly are we cleaning?

The government's continuing campaigns against illegal vending and informal activities in urban areas raise another uncomfortable question.

Zimbabwe certainly needs clean, orderly and safe cities.

Nobody should oppose proper waste management, functioning drainage systems, clean streets or organised urban spaces.

But there is a fundamental difference between cleaning a city and removing the livelihoods of people who have nowhere else to go.

Recent reports indicate that the government has ordered a crackdown on illegal vending in Harare's central business district, insisting that order must be maintained.

But where are these vendors supposed to go?

For many Zimbabweans, vending is not a lifestyle choice. It is survival.

A person who cannot find formal employment may sell vegetables, clothes, airtime, food or other goods simply to feed a family.

If government removes that source of income without creating meaningful employment alternatives, the problem has not been solved.

It has merely been moved somewhere else.

And this is why the police's involvement deserves public scrutiny.

Should the police primarily be dealing with people trying to earn a living, or should the state be creating economic conditions in which people do not have to depend on informal trading to survive?

The answer should be obvious.

Police officers have an important role in maintaining public safety and enforcing the law. But poverty is not a criminal offence.

Why are citizens struggling to educate their children?

Education should be one of the strongest investments a country can make in its future.

Yet parents across Zimbabwe continue to face increasing pressure from school fees, levies, examination costs, uniforms, transport and other education-related expenses.

The Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education has recently reminded schools and parents about approved fees and levies and warned schools against forcing parents to purchase uniforms and stationery exclusively from particular suppliers.

The government has also had to intervene repeatedly over school fees and education costs.

This should make every policymaker stop and ask:

What happens to the child whose parents simply cannot afford the cost of education?

A country cannot talk seriously about development while ordinary families are struggling to keep their children in school.

Zimbabwe has historically placed great value on education. That achievement must not be allowed to disappear because families can no longer afford the rising costs of sending children to school.

The bigger question: where is the economic opportunity?

Perhaps all these problems are connected.

The person selling goods on a pavement may be there because there is no formal job.

The young person looking for work may eventually leave Zimbabwe because there are few opportunities.

The family struggling to pay school fees may have parents whose wages cannot keep pace with the cost of living.

The person travelling on a dangerous road may have no reliable alternative public transport.

The informal trader removed from the streets may have no other source of income.

These are not isolated problems.

They are symptoms of a deeper national crisis.

Zimbabwe needs an economy that creates jobs, attracts investment, supports businesses, develops infrastructure and gives young people a reason to believe that their future can be built at home.

Government must accept responsibility

It is easy for authorities to blame the driver after a road accident.

It is easy to blame vendors for making cities untidy.

It is easy to blame parents for failing to pay school fees.

But leadership requires looking beyond the immediate problem.

Why are the roads unsafe?

Why are people forced into informal employment?

Why are families struggling to afford education?

Why are so many young Zimbabweans leaving the country in search of opportunities elsewhere?

These are questions that cannot be answered simply by deploying more police officers.

The government has a responsibility to create the conditions in which citizens can live safely, work with dignity and educate their children. We do not need a future where the police chase vendors from one street to another.

Zimbabwe does not need a future where parents fear every journey because of unsafe roads.

It does not need a future where education becomes increasingly unaffordable.

And it certainly does not need a future where young people grow up believing that their only chance of a decent life is to leave the country.

Zimbabwe deserves better. We deserve better.

The Zimbabwean people deserve a government that treats human life as its most valuable national asset.

We deserve safe roads.

We deserve affordable and accessible education.

We deserve employment opportunities.

We deserve functioning cities.

We deserve accountable institutions.

We deserve police services that protect citizens and enforce the law fairly.

Most importantly, Zimbabweans deserve hope.

A government should not merely manage today's problems. It should build the Zimbabwe of tomorrow.

Every road death should therefore be a call to action.

Every child struggling to remain in school should be a call to action.

Every unemployed young person should be a call to action.

Every vendor being removed from the streets should force us to ask why that person had no better economic opportunity in the first place.

The government cannot continue treating symptoms while ignoring the disease.

The government must stop asking how to control struggling citizens and start asking what it can do to stop citizens from struggling in the first place.

Because at the end of the day, development is not measured by how many people can be removed from the streets.

It is measured by how many citizens can live safely, work with dignity, educate their children and look towards the future with confidence.

We the people deserve nothing less.

About the author
Munyaradzi Masaka is a human rights activist based in the United Kingdom. He is in the Midlands Branch of the UK Chapter of Restoration of Human Rights (ROHR) Zimbabwe.  He can be contacted by email at masakamunya8219@gmail.com

 

Are Mnangagwa’s Priorities Right?

7th September 2026

Emmerson Mnangagwa, the despotic president of Zimbabwe, never ceases to amaze. His priorities are brazenly self-serving to the point where his sanity is called into question.

Zimbabwe is reeling under collapsing infrastructure, be it in the health, transport, services, and many other sectors, and citizens are dying unnecessarily because of this collapse.

Yet he goes on to offer to build a church for a whopping US$2 million.

You have to ask yourself whether national priorities are in the right place, especially as public hospitals continue to face shortages of medicines, equipment, and other essential resources.

Surely improving healthcare, hospitals, and other public services should come first.

Only recently, on 11^th August 2026, a ferry disaster on Lake Kariba claimed nearly one hundred lives when an old, ramshackle vessel operated by the Rural Infrastructure Development Agency (RIDA) capsized. The tragedy was driven in part by the government’s chronic underinvestment in critical infrastructure. Victims’ families were offered a pitifully small sum in funeral assistance, yet no commitment was made to upgrade transport infrastructure—doing nothing to prevent such a catastrophe from happening again

There are too many road accidents to mention, all claiming many lives. Most are caused by the condition of our roads, resulting from a lack of investment and corruption.

Zimbabwe’s education sector is now effectively sustained by the private sector—with the government having long since abandoned its duty of care to the nation’s children. Public schools remain in name only. The last meaningful infrastructure improvements were likely made during the Rhodesian era, and arguably in the earliest years following independence.

And yet, here we have an unashamed president and his cronies flaunting ill-gotten wealth and promoting a self-serving patronage system intended to win the backing of self-seeking public figures, church denominations, and their gullible followers.

Shame on you, Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa.

About the author
Memory Kishindo is a human rights activist based in the United Kingdom. She is in the Midlands Branch of the UK Chapter of Restoration of Human Rights (ROHR) Zimbabwe.  She can be contacted by email at kishindomemory51@gmail.com

 

Zimbabwe’s Warning Signs: From Kariba’s Waters to the Corridors of Power

 24^th August 2026

By Rumbidzai Thelma Chidewu
Human Rights Activist and Secretary General, Constitution Defenders’ Forum (CDF) UK Federation

Zimbabweans are once again forced to ask a painful but essential question: Who does the government truly serve?

Across the nation, a growing sense of alarm is taking hold: decisions made by those in authority increasingly appear to safeguard political interests and the powerful, while ordinary citizens bear the full brunt of their consequences.

From the tragedy on Lake Kariba, to the demolition of people’s homes, to proposals that could bar ordinary citizens from obtaining professional driving licences, and now the appointment of additional Senators under Constitutional Amendment No. 3, a deeply troubling picture is emerging.

These developments may seem unrelated, but together they converge on one fundamental issue: Where is the accountability to the people?

The Lake Kariba Tragedy: A Disaster That Demands Answers

The loss of life in the Lake Kariba ferry disaster is far more than an unfortunate accident — it is a national tragedy that demands rigorous scrutiny of safety standards, inspection protocols, passenger capacity, and emergency preparedness.

Survivors and witnesses reported that the vessel began taking on water shortly after departure and was severely overcrowded. Authorities later confirmed the ferry had sailed well beyond its authorised passenger limit. This alone raises urgent questions:

- Who inspected the vessel before it cast off?
- Who bore responsibility for ensuring passenger limits were respected?
- Were sufficient life jackets provided, and were passengers briefed on emergency procedures?
- Was the vessel genuinely fit to carry the number of people on board?

 Most importantly: How many lives could have been saved had basic safeguards been in place?

Lake Kariba is vast, and its waters are a critical lifeline for communities with few transport alternatives. The government cannot leave citizens with no choice but to wait indefinitely or board an overloaded vessel — people should never have to risk their lives simply to travel.

This tragedy calls for more than words of condolence. Zimbabweans deserve a fully transparent, independent investigation, accountability where negligence is proven, and binding measures to ensure such a catastrophe can never happen again. A responsible government does not only respond after lives are lost — it acts to prevent avoidable deaths in the first place.

Demolishing Homes: The Human Cost of Enforcement

The ongoing demolition of homes and structures deemed “unauthorised” is causing profound hardship. There is, of course, a legitimate need for proper urban planning — no country can function sustainably when land is developed without regard for infrastructure, services, and environmental safeguards.

Yet we must ask: How were these situations allowed to arise in the first place, and who bears the cost of administrative failure?

Many families poured their savings, years of labour, and hopes for a better future into the homes they built. If authorities knew these areas were being settled, why was development permitted to continue unchecked for years? If land was allocated unlawfully, those who authorised or facilitated those allocations must also be held to account. Officials cannot simply turn a blind eye until it is politically convenient — then walk away while ordinary citizens lose their livelihoods and shelter.

The law must be upheld, but enforcement must be fair, proportionate, and humane. Demolishing a family home without providing a viable alternative creates a humanitarian crisis. Government has a dual duty: to uphold the rule of law and to protect the dignity of its people.

Five O‑Levels and the Right to Earn a Living

A further cause for widespread concern is the proposal before Parliament to require professional driving licence applicants to hold five O‑Level passes — including English and Mathematics.

Road safety is paramount. Professional drivers carry lives in their hands; they must be trained, competent, medically fit, and held to high standards. But academic qualifications are not the same thing as driving ability. A person may lack five O‑Levels yet be an experienced, careful, and highly skilled driver — just as someone with impressive academic credentials can still be unsafe behind the wheel.

If the goal is safer roads, the focus should be on rigorous professional training, practical and theoretical testing, medical assessments, ongoing monitoring, and stricter enforcement. Education is to be encouraged — but we must not erect unnecessary barriers that prevent hardworking Zimbabweans from earning a living.

The critical question remains: Will this requirement actually improve road safety, or simply place another hurdle in the path of people already struggling to make ends meet in a harsh economic climate?

Constitutional Amendment No. 3: Power, Representation, and Democracy

The appointment of additional Senators under Constitutional Amendment No. 3 also merits full public scrutiny. The Constitution may provide the legal mechanism for these appointments — but legality is not the measure of legitimacy.

Democracy is not merely about whether something can be done legally. It is about whether the exercise of power strengthens public trust, accountability, fair representation, and democratic governance. The inclusion of figures linked to various political parties has fuelled legitimate debate about political co‑option and the future of opposition politics.

Zimbabweans should be asking more than: “Is this constitutional?” We must also ask:

- Does this strengthen Parliament’s independence?
- Does it enhance democratic representation?
- Does it give ordinary citizens a stronger voice?
- Or does it expand the Executive’s influence over an institution meant to hold power to account?

These are not acts of disloyalty — they are the questions of a free people. Holding government to account is not being anti‑government. It is the duty of every responsible citizen.

 
Zimbabwe Needs Prevention — Not Just Condolences

A dangerous pattern has taken root: something goes wrong, people suffer, the government expresses regret, investigations are promised — and once public attention fades, the root causes remain unaddressed.

We can no longer accept this cycle. A responsible government must be proactive.

- Vessels must be inspected before they sail — not after they sink.
- Land allocation must be lawful before people settle — not after homes are built.
- Humanitarian impact must be weighed before demolitions are carried out.
- Policies must be proven effective before they become law.
- And constitutional changes must be debated publicly before they alter the balance of power.

 
Zimbabwe Belongs to Its People

Let us be clear: The President is not Zimbabwe. The Government is not Zimbabwe. No political party is Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe belongs to its people.

Those who hold public office are temporary custodians — not owners of the nation. Citizens deserve a government that listens before disaster strikes; that acts before homes are destroyed; that consults before policies affect livelihoods; and that prioritises the common good over political advantage.

The Kariba tragedy must be more than a period of mourning — it must be a national wake‑up call. Demolitions must force us to confront administrative failure. New licensing rules must be judged by their real‑world impact. And constitutional changes must spark a deeper conversation about the kind of country we want to build.

Zimbabwe does not need a government that only acts when harm is already done. It needs:

✅ Preventative leadership, not just post‑crisis sympathy

✅ Institutions that are accountable to all

✅ Leaders who listen before deciding

✅ Laws that protect the vulnerable equally

✅ A political culture where the people’s interests come first

The time has come to demand not just development — but justice. Not just laws — but fairness. Not just stability — but genuine democracy.

The people are watching. The people are asking. And the people have a right to answers.