The Poisonous Relationship Between Politics and Corruption: Can it be Cured?
Over the past decade, the Platform for Concerned Citizens (PCC) has continuously pointed out that the crisis in the political economy of the country requires more than another election, more than a forced transition within the ruling party, more than government of national unity, and argued that the country needs a thorough reset.
This suggestion gained traction in 2025 and seems even having support within the ruling party in the repeated statements of the Vice President and war veterans about the capture of the state by a corrupt elite.
In particular, the statements of the Vice President are remarkable in how little they have sparked concern within ZANU-PF or the government, when it is common cause right around the country that the nexus of corruption and politics is so palpably obvious. Chiwenga continues to keep silent, and doesn’t bother to defend his claims, because he knows that he merely expressing what the entire nation knows to be true, as pointed out by Reason Wafawarova.
The government, however, continues with the rhetoric that all is well and the economy is recovering, but scarcely any citizen believes this, and have been critical of the government for nearly a decade. From 2017 to 2024, more than two-thirds believe the country is going in the wrong direction, more than two-thirds state that their living conditions are very bad ot fairly bad, few (13%) claim full-time employment, over half have gone without cash income (always or many times).
Quite evidently, the Vice President is articulating the views of most Zimbabweans, and it is remarkable that this produces no response other than denial or attack.
This was the central point made by the PCC nearly a decade ago: the government had no possibility of serious reform, either politically or economically, and what was true in 2016 is still true in 2026. It has not even been able to take advantage of the soft landing offered by the Arrears Clearance and Debt Relief Process, providing minimal reforms under Economic Growth and Stability, stuck on Land Tenure Reforms, and failing wholesale on Governance Reforms: the rule of law and protection of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms remain weak and too frequently violated with impunity. Even constitutionalism is being challenged by the 2030 agenda, and hence it is unsurprising that Zimbabwe is deemed an Electoral Autocracy, and scores poorly on virtually every international indicator of democracy and governance.
The country is obviously in a state of political paralysis, unable to extract itself from a vicious cycle: the political configuration enables the corruption, and the corruption reinforces and protects the political configuration. This relationship has been profiled and discussed on multiple SAPES Policy Dialogues in 2024 and 2025, and again recently, but what has been lacking is any clear remedy for the disease.
The single candidate, outside of elections and an unlikely popular uprising, has been the notion of a National Transitional Authority (NTA), all too often dismissed as unlikely given the determination of ZANU-PF to hold onto power and the demise of any serious political opposition. Some may argue for a government of national unity, but past experience demonstrated that will not work when one party holds all the reins of effective power. Furthermore, how can there be a government of national unity in the complete absence of an opposition?
Others argue for popular civic action, but this seems unlikely in the absence of any viable organisation and the clear lack of trust by the citizenry for any political party, a complete lack of political trust actually in state, government, political parties, duty bearers: in fact, everyone except religious leaders and civil society organisations.