LET us be brutally honest with each other, fellow Zimbabweans.
Day after day, we wake up and survive by sheer grit.
We build, we hustle, we mend what’s broken — and we dare to hope. But we do it all alone.
The Mnangagwa government that taxes us to the bone offers little in return.
No safety nets. No functioning systems. Just abuse, slogans and insults.
Where exactly are our taxes going?
Our roads have become obstacle courses.
Potholes are deep enough to bury tyres — or your dreams. Bridges sway on broken backs.
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Urban streets, once a mark of pride, now resemble dusty, crumbling trails.
And our hospitals? Ghosts of what they once were.
If you want real treatment, you need a private doctor and deep pockets.
Public infrastructure and services have collapsed.
We make plans to find clean water.
We drill our own boreholes or buy the precious liquid — if we can afford it.
Even poor people in the townships are pooling resources to drill boreholes.
We generate our own electricity, rely on solar power, gas stoves or firewood for energy.
Electricity, when it shows up, is more of a surprise than a service.
We secure our homes with private security guards, tall walls, alarms — not because crime is gone, but because the police have been re-purposed.
Their mission? Protect the regime, not the people. Is that not the textbook definition of tyranny?
We pay taxes — individuals and companies alike.
We comply with numerous levies, tolls, licensing fees.
And yet we receive nothing in return. So again: where is the money going?
Into the pockets of the many thieves around Mnangagwa.
They flaunt the proceeds of the loot without shame.
Into shiny SUVs, first-class flights, private jets and luxury mansions in leafy suburbs.
Into patronage networks that feed the egos of a political elite that has grown fat while the rest of the nation starves.
Into the hands of those same police who harass vendors and beat protesters — not to protect Zimbabwe, but to protect the power of a few from the anger of many. Is this not tyranny?
Meanwhile, poverty crushes us. Dreams shrivel before they can bloom.
Teenage pregnancies soar. Drug abuse has spiralled beyond a problem — it’s now a national crisis.
Our children are not dropping out of school because they lack ambition, but because they lack school fees, support and hope.
Our infrastructure is falling apart, but all we get are rehearsed promises and painted walls of propaganda.
Is this how a government helps its people?
A truly empathetic government empowers its citizens.
It invests in opportunity, not optics.
It enables the youth to dream and build — not just dangle a few dollars to a handpicked few in a sham empowerment.
True empowerment is building a system that serves everyone — not just the campaign-season elite.
And what of our war veterans? Once lionised, now weaponised.
They are given boreholes and handouts — not as a tribute, but as a leash.
What should be respect has turned into manipulation.
Their sacrifice is now a tool for political control.
Zimbabwe, open your eyes.
We are funding our own oppression.
We are bankrolling a system that gives back nothing but poverty and propaganda.
We are the ones building this nation with our bare hands — while those in power loot it barefaced.
But Zimbabwe is not a lost cause. It is a nation bursting with talent, with resilience, with beauty.
It is crying out — not just for better leadership — but for active, courageous and informed citizens.
Citizens who demand accountability.
Citizens who defend their rights.
From that soil, real opposition will rise. Empathetic leadership will emerge.
And with it, a future that honours all.
But that burden, that beautiful burden, begins with each of us.
So I ask you again: Is the Mnangagwa government helping you at all? Or are you surviving in spite of it?
So what must happen now?
Zimbabwe must awaken.
We must organise, not agonise.
We must challenge corruption, not normalise it.
Demand transparency. Demand service. Demand dignity.
Every Zimbabwean — young and old — must claim back their dreams, speak, resist and rebuild.
Demand quality and respect from all politicians — including those in the opposition.
We are not helpless. We are the majority.
It’s time to take back our beautiful motherland.
Trevor Ncube is the chairman of Alpha Media Holdings and host of ICWT
