Is ZIMRA deliberately stealing from the dead?

Tendai Ruben Mbofana

This chilling question hangs heavily over Zimbabwe’s public administration as automated, aggressive revenue collection increasingly appears to lose its human face.

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In an era dominated by digital tax portals and algorithmic oversight, state institutions are expected to streamline processes and reduce human error.

Instead, the current system seems to have weaponized inefficiency into a highly punitive trap.

While living citizens struggle beneath a mounting tax burden, a much more disturbing reality is beginning to surface: the bureaucratic hounding of those who have already passed away.

When a national revenue authority systematically ignores legal documentation, repeatedly fails to update its databases, and continues to issue financial ultimatums to the deceased, one is forced to look beyond mere incompetence and question whether something far more sinister is at play.

The harrowing experience of navigating this administrative black hole is not theoretical; it is a frustrating reality currently playing out in real time.

How can a woman who passed away on 4 October 2025 still be receiving aggressive demands for tax returns nine months after her death?

This is the exact ordeal I am facing with the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA).

Despite repeated visits to the Kwekwe ZIMRA offices—where I have been consistently assured that my late mother had been successfully removed from their tax records—the threatening emails continue to arrive.

This ordeal exposes a deeply troubling dysfunction within our national revenue administration, one that borders on systemic cruelty.

The frustration began with a cycle of false promises.

During my initial visits to the Kwekwe offices in December 2025, I was told the issue was resolved.

Yet, only a few months later, in March 2026, I was shocked to receive another email from ZIMRA demanding tax returns.

During what was my third visit to their offices, the officials—curiously, for the very first time—requested my mother’s death certificate to process her deactivation.

I submitted the required documentation, and after a week, I was assured that there would be no further challenges.

She was, officially, deactivated.

Imagine my disbelief this morning when I received yet another email from ZIMRA demanding her tax returns by 20 June 2026.

The email came with the usual chilling threat: “non-submission of the return will result in Estimated Assessments and Late Submission Penalty being raised without further communication.”

Forced to drive all the way back to the Kwekwe office, I demanded to know why these automated ultimatums were still being generated.

The officials promised to investigate, but less than an hour later, the system’s responses became entirely erratic.

Within moments, I received two deeply confusing and contradictory communications.

ZIMRA sent an email retroactively setting a tax return deadline of 20 March 2026.

Strangely, moments later, another email arrived reinstating the same 20 June 2026 deadline as the morning’s initial threat.

This bizarre behavior from an official state authority demonstrates a complete lack of internal control, turning a straightforward deactivation process into a bewildering technological trap.

Through my dogged follow-ups, I have verified that there are zero outstanding tax returns showing in the system.

But this deeply frustrating experience forces me to ask a much larger, more terrifying question: what happens to the estates of deceased taxpayers whose relatives are entirely unaware of these demands?

In my mother’s case, she was an elderly woman who did not have her own email account; she used mine to register on the ZIMRA portal.

This convenience allowed me to keep her updated while she was alive, and it is the sole reason I am still receiving these notifications and can follow up today.

But what about a deceased individual whose grieving family has no access to their digital portals or emails?

​What happens to grieving families who have no idea these hidden penalties are building up against their late relative?

Will their estates or heirs one day wake up saddled with thousands of dollars in fabricated debt accumulated long after their loved one was buried?

It is hard not to view this as a carefully planned plot by ZIMRA to prejudice deceased taxpayers.

Is this not a sinister scheme to suck millions of dollars from dead people?

It is a chilling thought.

If ZIMRA is sincere in its mandate, it must immediately investigate and fix this glaring anomaly.

If they do not, it is entirely safe to conclude that they are systematically stealing from the dead.

• 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