Open Letter to His Excellency President Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa

Your Excellency, when you promised to be a “listening president,” Zimbabweans believed you would chart a different path from the systematically failed governance models of the past.

Today, however, your people are crying out—not only to be heard, but to be rescued from the ticking time bomb of unemployment, corruption, state repression, and Chinese exploitation that is hollowing out our nation.

The recent tragic events in Nepal are also, without doubt, a warning to Zimbabwe about a restless generation suffocated by corruption.

This Generation Z, a restless generation suffocated by corruption, joblessness, poverty, and censorship, rose up to topple a government which had been deaf to its people’s cries.

Over fifty lives were lost, thousands were injured, and parliament itself was reduced to ashes.

These flames are not confined to Kathmandu; they are signals of what awaits Zimbabwe if we continue on this destructive path.

Your Excellency, from the other side of the equator, back home, Zimbabwe’s youth face the same despair.

Over 80% of Zimbabweans are not employed in the formal sector; millions have flocked to the congested informal sector.

Some hustle across the borders, while others languish in idleness without hope or have resorted to drug and substance abuse.

State-sponsored corruption festers unchecked as public tenders are inflated, natural resources are looted, and state institutions serve elites instead of citizens.

The sad reality is that poverty is not an accident in our country; it is the direct result of governance failure, and it is deepening every day.

Across Zimbabwe, the evidence of this failure is glaring and has been compounded by Chinese miners plundering our natural resources without consequences.

In Buhera’s Mukwasi Village, the Chinese-owned Sabi Star Mine has poisoned rivers, suffocated homes in dust, and destroyed grazing land, while villagers still wait in vain for relocation or clean water.

Bikita Minerals has also committed gross atrocities: reckless chemical spills from lithium mining have contaminated dams, killing livestock and leaving families without safe drinking water.

Your Excellency, in Goromonzi, Shengxiang Investments openly defied government shutdown orders, mocking our sovereignty and exposing the weakness of the state.

From Manicaland to Midlands, communities cry over deforestation, displacement, and poisoned rivers, while politicians pocket “investor” bribes and look the other way.

This is not development; it is plunder.

The government’s obsession with GDP growth is a dangerous illusion.

What good is US$674 million in lithium exports if the people breathe dust instead of air, drink poison instead of water, and bury their children before their time?

The obsession with figures while ignoring human suffering is destroying livelihoods and robbing us of dignity.

Real development is measured not in numbers but in human well-being—in education, health, employment, clean water, and a safe environment.

Even the so-called fight against drug and substance abuse has proven to be cosmetic.

Nine Chinese nationals convicted of cocaine possession were fined a mere US$150 or given the option of six months in prison.

Yet in China, the same crime warrants the death sentence.

What message does this send to our people?

Ordinary Zimbabweans are jailed for minor offences, while foreign nationals who destroy our youth and society walk free. 

Justice, under your watch, has become selective and deeply compromised.

The same governance failures that have torn Nepal apart—youth unemployment, corruption, patronage, and repression—are eating into Zimbabwe’s soul.

Unless institutional reform is embraced, Zimbabwe is marching towards the same disaster.

We must protect the legacy of the liberation struggle.

Our heroes did not fight colonialism for Zimbabwe to be recolonized through Chinese mining and elite corruption.

Yet their sacrifice is being betrayed by a few in government, men who were on the sidelines during the liberation struggle, but who now enrich themselves while excluding the very heroes and ordinary citizens who bled for independence.

To avert a national catastrophe, the government must abandon the slogan-driven Vision 2030 illusion and return to constitutionalism.

Your Excellency, our beloved nation needs a genuine national dialogue facilitated by respected, independent citizens across the political, civic, and social divide who command the trust of all Zimbabweans.

We believe that only through such a process can we confer viable and feasible solutions to restore faith in our institutions and chart a new way forward.

Your Excellency, the national dialogue we are calling for must be accompanied by a holistic reform agenda that is not cosmetic or a smokescreen.

Rather, it must be transformative and must address unemployment, corruption, resource governance, and citizen participation.

Your Excellency, nothing less will silence the rising tide of anger quietly sweeping across the nation.

History is beckoning you, Mr. President.

Do you want to be remembered as the incumbent who allowed Zimbabwe to fall into anarchy like Nepal?

Your Excellency, while you still hold the highest office in the land, choose to be known as the leader who listened to his people, re-established the integrity of the institutions, and brought governance back into line with the desires of the populace.

The disenfranchised masses will not remain silent indefinitely if the government keeps siding with foreigners, cronies, and elites while ignoring the general populace.

The average Zimbabwean is becoming more conscious.

They will oppose a system that creates poverty, protects corruption, and gives up their future to foreigners.

Now is a critical moment for reform.

By Obert Masaraure

On behalf of the disenfranchised masses of Zimbabwe.