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