Unapologetically authentic space for unapologetic reflections on Zimbabwean and Global politics, social justice, and the human condition: blending sharp critique with creative thought to challenge power and inspire change.
Zimbabwe is cutting 291 licences, permits, levies and fees to reduce the cost of doing business. Good. But who made it expensive in the first place? These charges were created, approved and collected by the same system now removing them and presenting the change as reform. Zimbabwe has a habit of creating problems, living with them for years, then fixing part of them and asking …
From Sept. 17 to 19, more than 800 anti-corruption officials from eight SADC countries will gather in Victoria Falls for an event featuring exhibitions, cultural activities, netball and volleyball. The theme is “Scaling Up Integrity Actions Across SADC.” Vice President Kembo Mohadi will open it. The Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission is presenting the event as a regional demonstration of commitment to fighting corruption. It is also …
“Solar is the mainstay because we have not been able to reach access.” Energy Minister July Moyo said this in Victoria Falls during the International Solar Alliance’s Africa meeting. He was explaining the government’s plan to equip 35,000 rural villages with solar-powered business units. He was also saying something more important. Zimbabwe has struggled to extend its electricity grid to much of the country, particularly …
Last week, a Zimbabwean government delegation arrived at the Pan Pacific Perth to court Australian investment in platinum refineries, lithium processing plants and ferrochrome smelters. The visit exposed an uncomfortable fact about Zimbabwe’s mineral policy. The government has decided that the country must stop exporting minerals in an unprocessed form. It has not yet built the industrial capacity required to make that policy work. In …
Last week on Wednesday, the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority gave Econet Wireless an award for customs and excise compliance at a Taxpayer Appreciation Day marking the agency’s 25th anniversary. The ceremony is not the interesting part. The interesting part is what it reveals about the relationship between one company and the state. In the fiscal year ended February 2024, Econet paid ZWL3.8 trillion to the government …
Zimbabwe has a problem with informal work. It also has a problem with pretending that its policies are solutions. This year, the government adopted the National Informal Economy Formalisation Strategy. The strategy recognizes what successive governments have often preferred to ignore: Informal work is not a temporary nuisance or an obstacle to urban order. It is a central part of Zimbabwe’s economy. The strategy calls …
The soil has not yet forgiven the heat of 2024. In the dry lands of Buhera and the low-slung valleys of Matabeleland, the earth remembers how the maize stalks curled and browned before the cobs could form. It remembers the dust storms that stripped the topsoil away, and the cattle that dropped dead beside empty boreholes. That disaster was supposed to be the exception. Now …
Every language has a graveyard of words that used to mean something specific and now mean whatever the room decides they mean. My dear mentor Tendai has just built an entire column on the false idea that words are haunted forever by wherever they were born, and that failing to research a phrase’s family tree before you say it is some kind of moral failure. …
Okay I guess I am going to be that guy. We all know that Brett Holley, a Zimbabwean activist who calls himself Brett MuVet launched a political party/movement last week calling it Varanda VeZimbabwe. He dropped a launch video akin to what can be a manifesto. He discussed his aspirations and some other details of this new part. Most importantly, he pointed put his intention …
A white man has just launched a political party in Zimbabwe, and he wants you to know it is not about him. That at least, is the pitch. Brett Holley is a Zimbabwean businessman and social media personality better known by his public persona, Brett “Muvet”. He has spent recent years building an online following as a political commentator. This past week he announced the …
In Addis Ababa last week, health ministers from across the continent gathered under the vaulted diplomacy of the African Union’s home city for the seventy-sixth session of the World Health Organization’s Regional Committee for Africa, and the language coming out of the plenary halls was, as it usually is at these gatherings, expansive. Delegates from forty-seven member states spent the opening days endorsing the Africa …
Zealous Thierry 