Zimbabweans are joining ZANU-PF out of desperation and not genuine support

When self-delusion masks reality, it elevates the insignificant into a false sense of importance.

To read the state-controlled Herald this morning is to step through a looking glass into an alternate reality, one where the streets of Harare are paved with the gold of “all-inclusive development” rather than the deep, car-breaking craters of neglect.

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The report regarding ZANU-PF’s National Cell Day, claiming that the party’s ranks are swelling as people “abandon the opposition,” is a masterpiece of political fiction.

It describes a populace “charmed” by a development trajectory that, in reality, has left the vast majority of Zimbabweans gasping for air.

We must dismantle this dangerous misrepresentation of our facts and our lived reality.

We must speak the truth that the state media works so tirelessly to bury: that what the regime interprets as “support” is actually a desperate, survivalist performance by a people who have been systematically stripped of their dignity.

The provincial chairperson’s claim that people are flocking to the party because of “sound economic policies” is an insult to the intelligence of every Zimbabwean struggling to find their next meal.

In a country where nearly 80 percent of the population has been driven into poverty, and approximately 49 percent live in the crushing grip of extreme poverty, the word “charmed” is a grotesque choice.

We are a nation where over 90 percent of the population lacks a decent, formal job.

Instead, we have been transformed into a nation of vendors and hustlers, reliant on an informal, hand-to-mouth existence that offers no security, no pension, and no future.

When the state speaks of “revamping the agriculture sector” because there is bread on the shelves, they conveniently forget to mention that most Zimbabweans can barely afford a single loaf.

A surplus of wheat is meaningless to a mother who cannot afford the flour.

The reality of our “development” is written in the halls of our public hospitals—if you can call them that.

These institutions have become little more than waiting rooms for the afterlife, lacking almost every basic necessity.

We watch our loved ones die from treatable ailments because there is no medication, no diagnostic tools, and no functioning treatment equipment.

While those in the inner circles of power fly to China, Singapore, or Dubai for the slightest headache, the average Zimbabwean faces a cancer diagnosis as a death sentence because the national machines are perennially “broken.”

Our roads, once the pride of the region, are now impassable tracks that damage our vehicles and make it impossible for farmers to bring their produce to the market.

This is the “infrastructure development” the Herald speaks of—a thin veneer of tarmac on a few select highways while the rest of the country crumbles.

Zimbabweans are not idiots.

We are fully aware of why our country is in this unbearable state.

We see the results of rampant, high-level corruption and the flagrant looting of our national resources every single day.

The “Gold Mafia” investigative documentary was not a revelation to us; it was merely a confirmation of what we already knew.

We see those close to power flaunting their ill-gotten wealth with a lack of shame that borders on the sociopathic.

They buy private jets, drive the world’s most expensive cars, and build enormous mansions that loom over the shacks of the poor.

They give away cars and cash at rallies as if the national treasury were their personal piggy bank.

We know that these fortunes are built on the back of illicit multi-million-dollar public tenders that flout every procurement process and the shady “privatization” of state assets.

So, why are the numbers of those joining ZANU-PF supposedly increasing?

Why would a sane person join the very organization that has authored their suffering?

The answer is not “charm,” as Cde Masimirembwa suggests; the answer is survival.

In a country where the state has monopolized every resource, pretending to love the party is a tactical move.

Many Zimbabweans have realized that wearing a certain scarf or singing a certain song is the only way to put food on the table for one more night.

The rallies are packed because they offer free food.

If you dance wildly enough and sing loudly enough, you might catch the eye of a “benefactor” who will give you a few dollars or a bag of maize.

People join these cells because they are promised “income-generating projects”—perhaps a few dollars to start a vending stall or a few chicks for breeding.

It is a transactional relationship born of absolute destitution.

When you are living below the poverty line, surviving on less than $5.50 a day, you will take any crumb offered to you.

But deep down, every Zimbabwean knows that a vending stall is not a career, and a few chickens are not an economy.

They know that this “support” is a means to live long enough to see another day, not a reflection of their political will or their hopes for the future.

Zimbabwe is a country richly endowed with minerals, fertile land, and a brilliant, hardworking population.

We have more than enough to take the majority of our people out of poverty.

We have the resources to pack our hospitals with life-saving equipment, to pave our roads with high-quality materials, and to transform our schools into modern learning institutions.

The people of Zimbabwe are fully aware that the only impediment to this life is the ZANU-PF regime—the same party that destroyed the “Jewel of Africa” and turned a proud people into beggars.

This “increased” support the Herald celebrates is both transactional and transitional.

It is a hollow victory.

If the regime actually believes that these numbers are born of genuine love, they are no different from a man who believes that the person he pays for intimacy actually loves him.

The loyalty of the hungry is as thin as the gruel they are fed.

Most of those joining the party today would not hesitate to vote it out of power the moment a formidable, unified opposition provides a safe and viable alternative.

The people of Zimbabwe do not want to spend the rest of their lives begging for crumbs from the table of those who stole the bread.

They want their pride restored.

They want to live independently, to work decent jobs, and to enjoy the dignified life that their country’s wealth should provide.

The “massive attendance” at Cell Day is not a sign of a party’s strength; it is a sign of a nation’s desperation.

But desperation has a limit, and purchased loyalty has an expiration date.

The relationship between the people and the regime is a temporary one, a marriage of convenience in a time of famine.

When the music stops and the free food runs out, the regime will find that you cannot build a permanent home on the shifting sands of coerced support.

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