Zimbabwe’s premature celebration of economic deals betrays a government with no faith in itself8

Tendai Ruben Mbofana

The tendency of the Zimbabwean government to loudly celebrate the mere commencement of negotiations, the signing of non-binding Memorandums of Understanding, and the preliminary stages of potential development projects is a pathology that has come to define state communications. 

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The recent press statement by the Minister of Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion, announcing the authorization of formal negotiations for membership to the New Development Bank, is just the latest manifestation of this deeply entrenched habit. 

With immense fanfare, the state machinery frames the opening of a bureaucratic door as a monumental economic milestone, asserting that it reflects growing international confidence. 

This premature celebration is not an isolated incident; it is part of a long, exhausting history of promised “mega-deals,” ceremonial groundbreakings, and pledged resuscitations of collapsed state-owned enterprises that inevitably stall, vanish from the headlines, or fail to show tangible results on the ground. 

It is a profound revelation of a deeper structural and psychological crisis within the governance architecture of Zimbabwe.

To fully understand this behavior, one must look past the polished diplomatic vocabulary of the current BRICS Bank announcement and analyze the broader pattern of a regime that consistently weaponizes possibility. 

For over two decades, Zimbabweans have been treated to a non-stop carnival of spectacular economic announcements. 

We have witnessed the high-profile signings of multi-billion-dollar energy, mining, and agricultural deals that were supposed to transform the country overnight. 

We have seen state officials dig up dirt at lavish groundbreaking ceremonies for infrastructure projects that remain nothing more than empty, overgrown fields today. 

Repeated promises to breathe life back into dead national giants like ZISCOSTEEL have been recycled so many times, with so many different foreign investors, that the announcements themselves have become a national joke. 

The state is trapped in a perpetual hunger for external validation, choosing to live entirely in the future and substituting actual economic output with the illusion of momentum.

This political strategy operates much like a perennially unprovided household managed by an unreliable provider. 

Imagine a father who has repeatedly failed to secure food, pay tuition, or maintain steady employment, leaving his family in a state of constant deprivation. 

Instead of coming home with a tangible paycheck or groceries, he bursts through the door celebrating with immense theatrics because he has simply been invited to a job interview. 

In a healthy, functioning environment, an interview or an MoU is understood as a preliminary hurdle—a routine step requiring rigorous preparation with zero guarantee of success. 

But for a provider starved of achievement and burdened by a history of failure, the interview itself is treated as the ultimate victory. 

The family is expected to rejoice, to forget their current hunger, and to bask in the reflected glory of a potential future that may never actually arrive.

This is the precise psychological space the Zimbabwean government occupies with its endless cycle of unfulfilled promises. 

By treating the entry into negotiations or the signing of a preliminary framework as a triumph, the administration reveals a staggering lack of faith in its own ability to reach the finish line. 

The state participates in anticipatory politics because it knows, deep down, that the structural rot within—ranging from entrenched corruption and bureaucratic red tape to institutional decay—makes the actual realization of these mega-deals incredibly unlikely. 

If a deal stalls quietly in 3 years, or if investors quietly back out due to policy inconsistency, the state media simply stops reporting on it. 

The public memory is expected to move on to the next shiny announcement. 

By celebrating the start, the government guarantees itself a positive headline today, completely insulated from the accountability of tomorrow.

Furthermore, this habit effectively lowers the bar for what constitutes governance success. 

In a robust and self-assured economy, opening bilateral talks, signing trade MoUs, or applying for institutional membership is just a standard day at the office. 

It does not warrant national press releases signed by cabinet ministers, nor does it merit prime-time news coverage. 

When an administration begins to elevate ordinary paperwork and bureaucratic box-checking into historic milestones, it inadvertently exposes how low its standards have fallen. 

The state has shifted from a results-oriented entity to a narrative-management enterprise. 

The primary objective is no longer the painful, quiet, and methodical work of rebuilding the national productive sector; it is the daily battle to control the information space and manufacture brief waves of artificial optimism to mask systemic failure.

This pathology is equally visible in the comical tendency to hold grand “official openings” for a mere 5-kilometer stretch of rehabilitated road that is supposed to be part of a 200-kilometer highway, or in the near-daily state media coverage breathlessly reporting “progress” in the construction of a single traffic interchange.

Ultimately, this strategy carries a severe long-term penalty. 

Just as the family of the unreliable provider eventually stops cheering for the job interviews and begins to look at the announcements with bitter detachment, the Zimbabwean public has developed a profound cynicism toward these state pronouncements. 

When the gap between the triumphant press statement and the material reality on the ground remains wide and empty, trust is completely obliterated. 

The constant repackaging of potentiality as progress does not inspire hope; it merely serves as a stark, daily reminder of a government running on empty promises. 

A confident, successful administration speaks through completed infrastructure, stabilized markets, and measurable improvements in the quality of life for its citizens. 

A government that must constantly throw a victory parade at the starting line only succeeds in highlighting its own exhaustion and its utter incapacity to deliver.

• 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