PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa has ordered Zanu PF wings that benefited from presidential empowerment programmes to submit comprehensive reports.
On paper, this sounds like accountability.
In reality, anyone familiar with Zimbabwe’s political culture knows what often happens: funds are looted, projects are abandoned and only the politically-connected benefit.
Mnangagwa says the reports will allow women and youth-led projects to be documented and shared across districts as models of success.
But the real question is: are the intended beneficiaries receiving the funds?
For too long, empowerment schemes have been hijacked by party and government bigwigs.
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Ordinary citizens — the unemployed graduate, the struggling single mother, the young entrepreneur — are sidelined.
This is not mere mismanagement. It is deliberate.
Empowerment schemes are the cornerstone of Zanu PF’s politics of manipulation.
They are used to buy loyalty, reward allies and entrench dependency.
Instead of lifting citizens out of poverty, they trap communities in a cycle where access to resources is based on political allegiance.
And history tells the story.
During the COVID-19 lockdown, a ZWL$600 million (US$25 million) fund was set aside to cushion vulnerable populations.
But investigations revealed that in Kwekwe district, out of over 6 000 aspiring beneficiaries, less than 500 made it to the final list.
Among them were business partners of a powerful figure and a Zanu PF senator.
The poor, for whom the fund was created, were left stranded.
This is not an isolated incident.
It is one example in a long-running pattern.
Command agriculture, which gobbled billions in State funds, became a cash cow for the elite while ordinary farmers were left battling shortages.
Youth empowerment funds meant for young entrepreneurs ended up in the pockets of ruling party leaders’ cronies, leaving genuine applicants with nothing.
Presidential input schemes, from maize seed to fertiliser, are hijacked by middlemen and party loyalists who sell the inputs for profit, while the poor are told to wait for the next batch.
Empowerment funds in Zimbabwe have never been about empowering the poor.
They have been about feeding those with political muscle.
Each time money is released, the same story repeats itself: projects launched with loud promises, funds looted by insiders, and the intended beneficiaries left with nothing, but empty pledges.
This seems to be the norm.
Instead of lifting citizens out of poverty, these programmes become tools of control, reinforcing loyalty while entrenching inequality.
Resources meant to uplift vulnerable communities end up in the hands of party loyalists, business cronies and the well-placed few.
Projects are launched amid pomp and fanfare, but many stall or collapse after the money has been siphoned.
Empowerment in Zimbabwe has been reduced to a political feeding scheme.
It is not development.
And until the looting is stopped, citizens will remain disempowered, while those in power use public funds to tighten their grip on it.
This is Zanu PF politics at play: empowerment funds are not about development, they are about control.
They buy loyalty, silence dissent and tie survival to proximity to power.
Such schemes reveal a consistent pattern: public money is recycled into private networks.
Reports and audits mean little when the system is designed to feed the elite.
The President’s demand for accountability will only matter if it is accompanied by genuine transparency — public disclosure of beneficiaries, independent audit and punishment for abuse.
Until then, empowerment funds remain what they have always been: political feeding troughs dressed up as development.
They are not vehicles of development, but tools for entrenching Zanu PF’s grip on power.