For how long will Zimbabweans celebrate being treated like second-class citizens?

Tendai Ruben Mbofana

Information Ministry Permanent Secretary Nick Mangwana recently posted on social media celebrating the return of international home soccer matches to Zimbabwe, proclaiming that “a home game now means playing at home, on home soil.”

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But behind the self-congratulatory posturing of government officials lies a deeply disturbing reality.

Is there truly anything to celebrate?

Or should this moment actually fill us with profound national shame?

To understand the absurdity of this celebration, one must remember that Zimbabwe is not emerging from a nuclear cataclysm or a dark age where modern infrastructure was non-existent.

We did not lack world-class football facilities.

For decades, our nation boasted iconic, internationally recognized venues such as Rufaro Stadium in Harare, Barbourfields in Bulawayo, and the grand National Sports Stadium.

These were facilities built to host world-class competition.

Yet through sheer neglect, incompetent administration, and systemic decay, those in authority allowed these national monuments to collapse into ruin.

Zimbabwe was plunged into the humiliating position of playing its “home” matches in foreign countries, reduced to a global laughingstock.

For a country sitting on vast mineral wealth, while political elites routinely splash millions on lavish lifestyles, leaving national stadiums to rot into unplayable ruins was an absolute disgrace.

Now, after years of public outcry, outrage, and international humiliation, the state finally manages to renovate a facility to basic international standards.

Instead of bowing their heads in remorse, those responsible step forward, beat their chests, and demand applause.

They expect the public to cheer for the restoration of what should never have been lost in the first place.

This culture of weaponized mediocrity is not confined to the football pitch.

It has become the defining characteristic of governance in Zimbabwe.

The pattern is as predictable as it is toxic.

Those entrusted with running the country deliberately neglect vital infrastructure for decades.

They allow the road network to deteriorate into treacherous death traps, leave municipal water taps bone dry for years, and watch the national power grid collapse into perpetual darkness.

Then the regime resurfaces to patch a 10-kilometer stretch of highway, drill a handful of boreholes in a dry village, or brag about a brief break from blackouts.

Yet the citizenry is instructed to bow down and treat these bare-minimum duties as monumental acts of benevolence.

The same warped logic permeates every sector of public life.

Millions of citizens, impoverished by decades of economic mismanagement and corruption, are expected to line up and cheer the very leaders who impoverished them when those leaders distribute meager food handouts.

In healthcare, when an entire public health system lies in ruins—lacking essential drugs, basic bandages, and working diagnostic equipment—the government paints a single hospital block and expects the nation to view them as heroes.

We are directed to admire cheap makeovers of dilapidated residential flats that were allowed to decay into slum-like conditions through years of official apathy.

This dynamic treats the people of Zimbabwe not as citizens with fundamental rights, but as second-class citizens who should be grateful for crumbs.

It conditions a population to accept the absolute bare minimum, lowering the bar of expectation until basic state function is hailed as an extraordinary gift.

When a government degrades public infrastructure and then demands praise for fixing a fraction of what it broke, it is normalizing failure.

Accepting this dynamic signals to those in power that Zimbabweans are content to live with subhuman standards.

It is time to reject this cycle.

The people of Zimbabwe do not owe their leaders gratitude for doing the bare minimum after years of catastrophic neglect.

Public officials are not benefactors dispensing charity.

They are public servants duty-bound to deliver high-quality infrastructure, healthcare, and basic services.

A nation cannot progress when its people celebrate the repair of problems created by the very authorities who claim victory over them.

Zimbabweans deserve a standard of living that reflects the country’s rich potential and resources.

It is long past time to stop applauding mediocrity and start demanding accountability.

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

  mbofana.tendairuben73@gmail.com