Tendai Ruben Mbofana
The latest report from the International Monetary Fund regarding Zimbabwe’s economic trajectory reads like a dispatch from a parallel universe.
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It is a world where spreadsheets and percentages hold more weight than the empty stomachs and hollowed-out dreams of millions.
To hear that the economy expanded by 7.5 percent in 2025, outstripping even the government’s own optimistic projections, should be a cause for national celebration.
Yet, for the average citizen navigating the battered streets of Harare or the neglected wards of rural Matabeleland, these figures are not just “impressive” — they are an insult.
The report is the kind of headline that might spark celebration in the climate-controlled boardrooms of Washington or the plush offices of Harare’s government enclave.
On paper, such a figure suggests a nation in the midst of a robust recovery, outperforming continental averages and signaling a new era of fiscal discipline.
Yet, for the millions of Zimbabweans currently navigating the suffocating reality of a broken economy, these “impressive” statistics are not just meaningless numbers but a profound insult to their lived experience.
There is a widening, dangerous chasm between the sterilized data of macroeconomic growth and the visceral, daily struggle for survival that defines life for the vast majority of our citizens.
Growth, in its truest sense, should be measured by the dignity it restores to the worker and the food it places on the kitchen table.
When the IMF speaks of a 7.5 percent expansion driven by mining and agriculture, they are describing a wealth that is being extracted from the soil but never reaching the pockets of the people.
This is the tragedy of jobless, heartless growth.
While the Gross Domestic Product supposedly swells, the poverty headcount ratios paint a picture of a nation in a state of permanent emergency.
Over the past five years, even as these “recovery” narratives were being polished, the percentage of Zimbabweans living in extreme poverty has hovered between 40 and 45 percent.
This means nearly half the population is existing on less than US$2.15 a day—amounting to US$387 per month for a family of six—unable to meet the most basic nutritional requirements for human life.
When we broaden the scope to the upper middle-income poverty line of US$6.85 per day, which requires US$1,233 per month for a family of six, the mask of economic success falls away entirely.
A staggering 85 percent of the population falls below this threshold.
This is the reality of the “stronger-than-expected recovery” touted by international lenders.
It is an economy where the top one percent enjoys a standard of living comparable to the global elite, while 85 percent of the people are effectively trapped in a cycle of deprivation, unable to afford decent housing, healthcare, or education for their children.
To call this growth is a linguistic deception that prioritizes the health of the balance sheet over the health of the human being.
The most glaring indictment of this growth narrative is found in the treatment of our civil servants, the very individuals tasked with keeping the wheels of the state turning.
Recent announcements of salary increases were met with government fanfare, yet the reality on the ground remains pathetic.
While the state recently adjusted pay scales with the claim of bringing entry-level salaries toward the US$370 to US$375 range, these gross figures are a deceptive baseline.
They fail the most basic test of survival because, even before a single cent is deducted, these salaries fall far below the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe (CCZ) low-income urban earner monthly basket, which is currently pegged at approximately US$440 for a family of six.
The math of survival is simply impossible.
A significant number of civil servants are currently taking home as little as US$190 after the state has finished its aggressive harvesting of taxes and pension contributions.
When the gross salary doesn’t even meet the CCZ survival threshold, the net result is a workforce that is effectively being starved by the state they serve.
These professionals are the “working poor,” individuals who spend forty hours a week serving their country only to return home to darkness because they cannot afford electricity or to dry taps because the water bill is a luxury.
This disconnect between soaring GDP figures and sinking livelihoods is not an accident of nature nor is it a simple byproduct of global risks.
The primary reason why this supposed wealth never reaches the masses is found in the corrosive levels of public sector corruption that have become entrenched in our governance structures.
The Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index provides a chilling timeline of this systemic failure.
In 2021 and 2022, Zimbabwe languished with a score of 23 out of 100.
There was a microscopic uptick to 24 in 2023, only for the score to plummet to 21 in 2024 and settle at 22 in 2025.
These scores consistently place Zimbabwe among the most corrupt nations on the planet, ranking near the very bottom of the global index.
These figures represent a massive, ongoing heist of the national treasury.
Every point on that index translates to billions of dollars in potential revenue that is siphoned away through procurement fraud, the looting of mineral resources, and the shadowy cartels that dominate our export-oriented industries.
When the IMF notes that the mining sector is a key driver of growth, they fail to mention that much of the “expansion” in lithium, gold, and diamonds is captured by a politically connected few who live lavishly in gated communities while the communities sitting on those resources remain destitute.
The corruption index proves that the “fiscal discipline” mentioned in international reports is often a euphemism for austerity for the poor and impunity for the powerful.
The Staff-Monitored Programme recently approved by the IMF is described as a critical step toward policy credibility.
But credibility in whose eyes?
To the international creditor, it might mean the government is becoming better at collecting taxes from a starving populace to pay off longstanding debts.
To the citizen, however, credibility is earned through the provision of clean water, stable electricity, and a living wage.
A government that presides over 7.5 percent growth while its doctors and teachers earn below the poverty line has no moral credibility, regardless of how many benchmarks it meets in a Washington-led program.
Real life in Zimbabwe today is a grueling marathon of trade-offs.
It is a mother deciding which child stays in school because the fees have tripled.
It is an elderly retiree watching their life savings vanish again as the currency undergoes yet another “stabilization” exercise.
It is a young graduate looking at the mining boom and realizing that without a political connection, they will never see a cent of that wealth.
The 7.5 percent growth figure does not pay for the surgery a father needs, nor does it lower the price of a loaf of bread that has become a luxury item.
The obsession with macroeconomic stability as an end in itself is a dangerous fallacy.
If the “recovery momentum” does not translate into the restoration of the middle class and the eradication of extreme poverty, then it is not a recovery at all but a consolidation of wealth by an oligarchy.
We must stop being seduced by percentages and start demanding progress that is visible in the quality of life of the ordinary person in the rural wards of Gokwe or the high-density suburbs of Glen View.
Transparency and accountability are not just buzzwords for donor reports; they are the only mechanisms that can ensure national wealth is distributed equitably.
As long as the Corruption Perceptions Index remains in the low twenties, any growth reported will be a phantom growth for the majority.
The lithium and the gold will continue to leave our shores, the GDP will continue to rise, and the Zimbabwean people will continue to sink deeper into the three tiers of poverty.
We must reject the narrative that we are doing well just because the spreadsheets say so.
True economic success is measured by the absence of hunger and the presence of hope, two metrics that are currently nowhere to be found in the IMF’s glowing reviews.
The time has come to stop celebrating the growth of the economy and start demanding the growth of the people.
- Tendai Ruben Mbofana is a social justice advocate and writer. To directly receive his articles please join his WhatsApp Channel on: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaqprWCIyPtRnKpkHe08
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