FINANCE, Economic Development and Investment Promotion minister Mthuli Ncube must be reminded that economic leadership is not about repeatedly turning to the taxpayer each time the system finds the going getting tough.
Zimbabweans are weary.
Every time the economy shows signs of distress, instead of tackling the root causes, the Finance minister comes up with another tax from his bag of tricks, piling more pressure on already overburdened citizens.
From the informal trader in Mbare to the struggling civil servant in Munyikwa, Gutu, ordinary citizens are tightening belts that have long since run out of notches.
Instead of relief, they are met with policies that are do not reflect what is on the ground, that are divorced from reality.
Taxing the poor is not a recovery strategy — it’s a shortcut that deepens inequality and stalls growth.
Ncube must break this cycle.
The country needs innovative economic thinking, real structural reforms and bold productivity-focused strategies — not a continued dependence on revenue extraction.
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Taxation should be a tool of development, not a substitute for visionary governance.
It’s time Ncube restores economic confidence not through levies, but through leadership that listens, plans and delivers.
With the Mid-Term Budget Review Ncube presented this past Thursday, Ncube clearly revealed that businesses and the ordinary citizens are shaking in their boots as a result of his policies, which are making businesses go off the rail.
“We have a situation where in some sectors, players or private players are only profitable if they don’t comply with regulatory requirements,” he said.
“If they comply, they make losses and that situation needs to be changed. We will lower the cost of doing business.”
What Ncube is basically telling us is that the Zimbabwean environment and the compliance routes are too expensive to do business.
What we are noticing with his budgets since being appointment as Finance minister is that each and every one of them has turned out to be disastrous.
Zimbabweans are waiting with bated breath to see when he will do the right thing for the economy so that it can extricate itself out of the intensive care unit (ICU).
It looks like he has no solution, except to turn to taxing businesses and citizens, a clear sign of failure.
Going forward, Honourable minister Ncube, it’s time to stop leaning on the tired and crooked crutch of taxing citizens and businesses every time the economy wobbles.
Zimbabwe’s economy is already in the ICU, and more taxes only worsen the situation we are already in.
Instead of squeezing struggling households and choking small businesses, he must focus on sustainable revenue streams.
Fund the manufacturing sector so that it starts being productive again.
Ncube must cut wasteful government spending, plug leakages through corruption, come up with policies that boost exports, support local production and formalise a section of the informal sector so that they generate real value without punishing the taxpayer.
Innovation, not desperation, should drive fiscal policy.
We urge Ncube to shift gears — from taxing survival to enabling growth.
Only then can the economy begin to breathe on its own again.
