By Advent Shoko
Corruption in the management of public resources in Zimbabwe remains pervasive, Transparency International Zimbabwe (TI-Z) has warned, despite a slight improvement in the country’s latest global corruption ranking.
In a statement seen by ZiGoats.com, TI-Z said Zimbabwe scored 22 out of 100 on the 2025 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), up from 21 in 2024. While that one-point increase may appear to signal marginal progress, the watchdog says the bigger picture remains worrying.
Zimbabwe still sits well below the Sub-Saharan Africa regional average of 32 out of 100, underscoring what TI-Z describes as deep-rooted governance challenges. TI-Z noted:
“The CPI is the world’s most authoritative indicator of perceived public-sector corruption.”
TI-Z explained that the index measures expert assessments and business surveys across more than 180 countries.
But beyond the numbers lies a harsher reality.
TI-Z says corruption continues to undermine political integrity, weaken accountability systems and restrict citizens’ access to basic services like healthcare, education and social protection. The poor and marginalised, it adds, are paying the highest price as inequality widens and trust in public institutions erodes.
The watchdog acknowledged government efforts, including the establishment of specialised anti-corruption courts and some asset recovery initiatives. However, it stressed that corruption today is increasingly transnational and requires stronger international cooperation to trace and recover stolen funds hidden abroad.
More significantly, TI-Z warned that Zimbabwe’s low CPI score could complicate its ongoing Arrears Clearance and Debt Resolution Process. International lenders and development partners increasingly view anti-corruption reforms as a key condition for debt relief and concessional financing. In simple terms, weak governance could slow down economic recovery.
TI-Z is now calling for urgent reforms, including strengthening judicial independence, curbing political interference, protecting whistleblowers and journalists, improving procurement transparency, and tackling grand corruption and illicit financial flows.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa pledged in 2018 to “confront corruption head-on.” Yet critics argue that while institutions have been created, high-level convictions remain rare. Some anti-graft bodies themselves have faced allegations of misconduct, raising a troubling question whispered in many corridors, who polices the police?
For ordinary Zimbabweans struggling with high costs of living and fragile public services, the corruption debate is not abstract. It is about hospitals without medicine, roads left unrepaired, and opportunities lost. The CPI score may have nudged upward, but confidence, many argue, still has a long way to go.
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