ZIMBABWEANS envy foreign countries. They wish other countries were Zimbabwe. Some even wish to go away without the hope of ever coming back. Not because they are less patriotic or they do not love the country but because they feel betrayed. Muchemwa Silence Mugadzaweta Living in Zimbabwe is a frustrating experience on a day-to-day basis. Everything is normal until you want to process official documents like a National Identity Card, a passport or a driver’s licence. At the heart of this frustration, people mention poor administration of the country’s affairs, corruption and toxic politics. Literally, Zimbabwe has long departed from the principles of good governance. We hear stories of a better Zimbabwe, soon after independence, a country in which all industries were fully operational as many celebrated black majority rule. We hear of a time when the Zimbabwe dollar used to be twice stronger than United States dollar. But when did the rain beat us. How did Zimbabwe become so poor to the extent of importing toothpicks? Today, we import US$1,1 billion worth of steel annually. But we had our own Ziscosteel, a steel manufacturing giant that has been turned into a white elephant. Zimbabweans are frustrated because they saw things deteriorating right in front of their eyes, sometimes even offering advice to government. The government has, however, attributed our suffering to economic sanctions, opposition parties, all sponsored by the West and America. After inheriting an economy characterised by racial imbalance, inequalities in incomes and justice, the government gave itself a task to reorganise and correct the colonial legacy. Zimbabwe recorded the strongest post-independence economic performance in the period 1980-81, with an average gross domestic product of around 5,5%. 2008 recorded a low performance of -17,70%. Contestations remain between government, opposition parties, the general public, labour organisations and civil society as to whether the economy is growing or not. But in real terms, Zimbabwe is confronted with a host of challenges many of which are caused by poor governance. Poor service delivery, violence, slow growth, corruption, natural resource curse are just but a glimpse of problems facing this country. On paper and at Press conferences, the government often mention principles of good governance. However, the level of responsiveness, openness and transparency, competence and the capacity of having sound financial management, accountability is still questionable in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe has a reputation of signing various “mega deals”, and MoUs for whose contents are never disclosed to the public. It’s not amusing to see a Chinese company bringing excavators to your residence and starting a project. We may comfort ourselves in lies, saying the economy is on the rebound but the truth of the matter is we have been left behind. The conviction is, until such a time we confront ourselves and reconfigure our governance structure and systems, we shall remain far behind. Dealing with corruption As of 2018, Zimbab