If ZANU-PF wants to employ civil servants, then the state should tax only ZANU-PF supporters

Tendai Ruben Mbofana

We had a vice president calling out his party for losing direction and repeating mistakes that led to a previous coup d’état.

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Then we had the resolutions.

There were many controversial ones, such as moving the party’s elective congress from 2028 to 2029 in an attempt to prolong the president’s tenure.

But there is another resolution that has so far remained largely under the radar.

ZANU-PF directed the government to ensure that all candidates for public sector employment are recommended by the ruling party.

This directive is a brazen attempt to turn the civil service into a private party enterprise.

It formalizes a doctrine of “Party Supremacy” over the state, asserting that line ministries and independent constitutional commissions must take orders from political commissars.

But this resolution raises a fundamental question of public finance and fairness.

If the ruling party insists on monopolizing state employment for its own faithful, then the obligation to fund the state apparatus, pay civil servants’ salaries, and foot the bill for public infrastructure should fall squarely on the shoulders of registered ZANU-PF members.

Citizens who are excluded from public employment on account of their political beliefs should logically be exempted from paying tax to a government that refuses to serve them equally.

This policy reflects a deep, structural flaw that directly sabotages Zimbabwe’s national development.

A functional public sector requires technical competence, merit, professionalism, and continuity.

When political loyalty replaces qualifications as the primary criteria for hiring teachers, doctors, engineers, and administrators, public service delivery collapses.

Brain drain, which has already deprived the country of millions of skilled professionals, will only accelerate as educated youth realize that academic excellence counts for nothing without a party membership card.

International investors, development partners, and multilateral financial institutions cannot take seriously a country where state administration is subordinated to political patronage.

By dismantling meritocracy, ZANU-PF is actively engineering institutional decay, guaranteeing that Zimbabwe remains stuck in economic stagnation.

Far from being a sign of political strength, this move exposes the profound desperation of a ruling party presiding over a ruined economy.

Decades of corruption, policy inconsistency, and economic mismanagement have destroyed the formal job market.

With formal unemployment hovering around 90 percent, the vast majority of Zimbabweans have been cast into the informal sector, earning a precarious living through street vending, casual labor, and small-scale trading.

The economy no longer generates real private-sector opportunities, leaving civil service jobs as one of the few remaining sources of stable income, medical cover, and pensions.

Recognizing this, ZANU-PF seeks to seize total control over public sector recruitment, converting scarce government positions into political spoils to reward loyalists and quiet discontent within its ranks.

This resolution is part of a broader strategy of state capture used to compensate for a catastrophic loss of organic grassroots support.

Having lost the battle of ideas and failed to deliver economic prosperity, the ruling party now relies on coercive patronage to hold the nation at ransom.

By weaponizing employment in public institutions, ZANU-PF forces desperate citizens into a Faustian bargain: bow to the party or starve.

This pattern of extortion is already evident in the politicization of “empowerment projects,” agricultural inputs, and food assistance in rural areas, where non-party members are routinely denied aid during times of hardship.

Making public service jobs conditional on party clearance extends this weaponized aid into urban centers and professional sectors, attempting to artificially manufacture political compliance from a populace that has politically rejected the party at the ballot box.

Zimbabwe belongs to all its citizens, not to a single political party.

The 2013 Constitution explicitly mandates that the public service must be non-partisan, professional, and accessible to every Zimbabwean based solely on merit.

Attempting to reduce state institutions to party departments violates the supreme law of the land and deepens political polarized divides.

If ZANU-PF insists on treating the government as its political wing and reserving public jobs exclusively for its members, then it must accept the logical conclusion.

Non-members owe no financial duty to sustain a system that systematically disenfranchises them.

True development cannot be achieved through political extortion and institutional decay.

It requires an open, professional, and inclusive state that serves all citizens regardless of political affiliation.

• *Tendai Ruben Mbofana is a social justice advocate and writer. Please feel free to contact him on+263715667700 or *

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