Former opposition MP Fadzayi Mahere has dismissed claims by Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion Minister Mthuli Ncube that Zimbabwe’s economy is growing.
Ncube, presenting the 2026 Mid-Term Budget Review in Parliament last month, said the economy remains on course to grow by 5% this year despite heightened global uncertainty.
He said the projected growth was underpinned by favourable commodity prices, improved electricity supply and strong performance in key productive sectors, and was well above the International Monetary Fund’s global growth forecast of 3%.
Mahere, however, said the minister would “do whatever creative mathematics necessary to push his narrative” and that his figures do not reflect the lived reality of most Zimbabweans.
“Political elites and the rich who have US$10 million to gift plush homes are not an accurate reflection of Zimbabwe’s true economic reality. The majority of Zimbabweans have been left behind in Mthuli’s ‘economic growth’ fairytale,” Mahere said.
She said 49% of Zimbabweans live in extreme poverty and that public debt, now over US$22 billion, remains in distress with no credible plan to repay it.
“This debt distress on its own tells a worrying story,” she said.
Mahere said most public services are broken. Public hospitals are defunct, with beds without bedsheets and patients without paracetamol, while nurses complain that their salaries are inadequate to buy three meals a day.
She also pointed to an acute housing crisis, arguing that the government’s response has been to demolish homes built from people’s meagre earnings.
On the local currency, Mahere said the ZiG is “a failure by every conceivable metric”.
“Even government offices like the Passport Office reject it. It cannot buy fuel, and it is not a recognised currency of exchange abroad, let alone in rural Zimbabwe where it’s unheard of. Even their corruption and bribes are denominated in USD,” she said.
She said Zimbabwe remains effectively locked out of normal international capital markets, which she said confirms that things are far from stable.
Mahere further argued that the economy is overwhelmingly informal, citing ZIMSTAT data that 76.9% of establishments were informal. This, she said, means a huge portion of economic activity operates outside the formal tax, financing and regulatory system.
“Our manufacturing base has been hollowed out. Unemployment and wealth inequality remain extremely high,” she said.
Mahere said no amount of paid advertising in international publications would change the situation on the ground.
“Whatever growth he alleges through his gymnastic mathematical models is not translating adequately into broad household prosperity, while debt, informality, poverty and weak institutions remain severe problems. The lived reality of most Zimbabwean households is not keeping pace with the published macroeconomic statistics,” she said.
“No matter how much mathematical lipstick Mthuli tries to apply to this economy, it remains a frog.”
