Zimbabwe’s economy must serve citizens, not just ruling elites

By Ellaine Manyere

By the time most children arrive home from school, they think about homework, playing football, or their next meal. But that isn't the case with eleven-year-old Jayden* who lives in Dzivarasekwa, a township 18 kilometers west of Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare. 

Three afternoons every week, he walks 4 kilometers to KwaTomu Farm hoping to collect potato rejects for his next meal. And he is not alone. Women and other children gather with empty sacks to  scramble for the  potatoes farmers throw away, because as the price of food and other essentials keep climbing their families can no longer afford to buy them. Some return home with enough to feed their families, others with little or none.

For these families, the next  meal or a child's school lunch  depends on what the farm discards, not their choice.

This is not an isolated case. For millions of Zimbabweans survival has become a full-time occupation. Some live on food others throw away, many more earn wages too meagre to live on.

Now, set this Zimbabwe lived by millions, the one lived by the 99%, against another that has recently dominated headlines and social media.

With bewilderment, the country has watched extravagant wedding celebrations of the politically connected. Their newlyweds have been showered with millions of US dollars in cash, along with lavish gifts, and properties worth millions as well.

Recently, prominent businessman Kuda Tagwirei’s son had a wedding and it reportedly featured a US$2.5 million cash gift alongside 33 hectares of prime land and other gifts worth approximately US$20 million.

Such spectacles are not uncommon.

Wicknell Chivhayo, a Zimbabwean billionaire has reportedly committed to pay Zimbabwe’s legendary musician Thomas Mapfumo US$1.5 million for celebratory concerts. They include US$1million for a private performance at his birthday and US$500,000 for a concert at the rumored wedding of Jah Prayzah, one of Zimbabwe’s most popular artists.

No law prevents  people from spending their money as they wish. However, this is wealth being spent on day’s events in a country facing severe economic challenges including endemic inflation, currency instability, and high unemployment with nearly half of its population living in extreme poverty.

Set against families scrambling for discarded potato meal, public hospitals without essential medicines, nurses and  teachers earning salaries that can barely sustain their families, and young graduates unable to find decent jobs because the economy is on its knees, such extravagance takes on a different meaning.

In this setting, displays of wealth are more than personal choices. They become symbols of a society pulling apart. Zimbabwe’s inequality can no longer be explained through statistics alone. It is visible every day, in the elites flaunting lavish lifestyles while ordinary citizens struggle to afford a meal or access a clinic.

Research by Development Finance International and Norwegian Church Aid shows that Zimbabwe has one of the highest levels of wealth inequality in the world, with a wealth Gini coefficient exceeding 0.6. Behind that statistic are millions forced into impossible choices between food and school fees, transport and medicine, or pushed to loan sharks to cover ever soaring rent and energy bills while the richest 1% hoard more wealth.

The problem is not purely that some people are wealthy. The real crisis is that wealth and economic opportunities have become increasingly concentrated in the hands of the ruling elite while public services and goods continue to deteriorate. Public hospitals with no essentials, schools running without adequate learning materials and qualified teachers and cities, townships and communities not having access to clean portable water.

None of this should be mistaken for prosperity. These are  the symptoms of a broken economic system that urgently needs fixing. An economy that rewards only a politically connected handful endangers itself, and every generation to come. It breeds  frustration, erodes trust in public institutions, and deepens divisions between us.

Zimbabwe does not lack wealth. It lacks fair distribution of that wealth, accountable governance, and policies that put public wellbeing over privilege.

Closing the gap requires bold and deliberate action. We, Zimbabweans, must demand progressive taxation so the wealthy pay their fair share. Public resources must be managed transparently and spent on the services people depend on. The fight against corruption and patronage cannot remain rhetorical; it must deliver real accountability. Economic policies should be judged not by how many it enriches, but by how much it improves the lives of the many.

Jayden’s family and millions of Zimbabweans should not have to spend their afternoons searching for discarded potatoes for a meal. The true measure of success should not be measured by the size of the gifts we exchange at private celebrations. It should be about  whether every child can go to bed well-fed, every patient can receive quality healthcare, and every citizen can live with dignity and hope.

Until we bridge that gap, the distance between the rich and the poor will remain more than an economic divide. It will also  be a moral one.

*Not his real name

Ellaine Manyere is Fight Inequality Alliance Zimbabwe Communications and Mobilisation Officer

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