MANY Zimbabweans of today are gripped by an obsession with status. The haves flaunt conspicuous consumption and primitive accumulation.
The have-nots are yearning to be like the haves, by any means possible. Titles now precede names such as badges of honour, as every day we hear “hello boss”, “good day prophet”, “how are you chair?”, “good morning chief”, etcetera, to the extent that even a simple and less dramatic “sir” or “madam” are now hardly in use nowadays.
Do not get me started on the convoys of expensive cars parading through potholed streets and the rise of monstrosities of mansions on display behind high walls, while public clinics crumble nearby.
Academic credentials, especially PhDs, are increasingly pursued not necessarily as tools for inquiry or problem-solving, but as social ornaments meant to elevate personal standing. Even those who never attained PhDs are called docs and many from among us, do not have the decency to correct the misnaming.
Zimbabwe has become an environment where success is loudly displayed, yet development remains elusive. This contradiction invites a deeper question — if all this status truly signified progress, would Zimbabwe still struggle with unemployment, corporate failure, failing services and fragile institutions? Have we forgotten that, true progress is inseparable from productivity?
Strengthening foundations
The uncomfortable answer is that we have confused appearance with advancement. We are now enamoured by optics. We have forgotten that development is not what dazzles the eye, it is what strengthens the foundations of a nation.
It is measured not by how many people sit at the high table, but by how many can afford a decent meal.
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A country does not move forward because a select few have accumulated symbols of prestige or set up several sector associations dishing out “certificates of recognition and achievement” where there is no accreditation to regulatory bodies.
A country advances when the majority experience tangible improvements in their daily lives. Until we confront this misalignment between what we celebrate and what actually works, Zimbabwe will remain stuck in a cycle of performative success and substantive stagnation.
Status symbols problematic
Titles, houses and cars are not inherently problematic. They can reflect hard work and reward achievement. The problem arises when they become the primary yardstick of worth, disconnected from contribution.
A nation cannot develop on the basis of individual display. Roads are not built by honorifics, hospitals do not function on academic prefixes and food security does not come from luxury SUVs.
Development is the cumulative result of systems that work, such as productive farms, efficient markets, reliable energy, competent public institutions and a workforce equipped with relevant skills.
These are quiet achievements. They do not trend on social media, yet they determine whether a country thrives or merely survives.
Success is impact
At the heart of Zimbabwe’s dilemma is a cultural narrative that equates success with elevation above others rather than impact among others.
Status is about distinction, whereas development is about diffusion of opportunity, capability and prosperity. When ambition is channelled primarily toward escaping the collective, instead of improving it, the social contract weakens.
Zimbabwe current thinking has been encouraging a status quo where talented individuals focus on personal exit strategies rather than national solutions. The brightest minds aim to be seen rather than to serve. In such a context, inequality deepens and trust erodes, both of which are fatal to long-term development.
Zim needs relevant education
The fixation on academic credentials illustrates this tension clearly. Education is indispensable to progress, but credentials alone do not develop a nation.
A PhD that exists only on a business card is an indictment, not an achievement. Advanced knowledge matters only insofar as it is applied to real problems, such as increasing agricultural yields, improving public health delivery, designing affordable housing, optimising supply chains, or strengthening governance systems.
When degrees are pursued primarily for prestige, education becomes extractive rather than productive. That education, a private good, is acquired for social climbing instead of a public good for problem-solving.
This is not a rejection of learning or excellence. On the contrary, it is a demand for intellectual honesty. Zimbabwe does not need fewer educated people, in fact, it needs more useful education.
It needs research that speaks to local realities, teaching that equips students with practical and adaptable skills and scholarship that informs policy rather than flattering egos. Development flourishes when knowledge circulates beyond conference rooms and into factories, farms, classrooms and clinics.
Excessive consumption, extraction
True progress is inseparable from productivity. Nations develop when they produce goods and services efficiently, competitively and sustainably.
This requires investment in agriculture, manufacturing and technology, not merely as slogans, but as coordinated strategies. It requires functioning infrastructure, access to finance for small and medium enterprises and regulatory environments that reward innovation rather than connections.
No amount of elite consumption can substitute for a productive base. In fact, excessive consumption without production is a warning sign, for it signals extraction, not growth.
Reset of national values
Leadership plays a decisive role in shaping these priorities. When leaders model humility, service and accountability, they reset the national imagination, thinking and values.
When they model excess, entitlement and spectacle, they legitimise a culture of hollow achievement. Developmental leadership is not about being admired, it is about being useful. It is about building institutions that outlast personalities, setting standards that apply equally and measuring success by outcomes rather than applause. A leader’s legacy should be counted in classrooms built, jobs created, systems reformed and not in titles accumulated or ceremonies attended.
Crucially, development is a collective effort. It cannot be imported, outsourced, or decreed. Rather, it is built through everyday actions: Teachers who show up prepared; farmers who adopt better practices; entrepreneurs who take calculated risks; civil servants who resist corruption; and citizens who live in an enabling environment that allows them to demand accountability.
These acts rarely confer status, yet they are the backbone of national progress. When society begins to honour such contributions, socially, economically and politically, it creates incentives aligned with development rather than display.
Youth alive with possibilities
Zimbabwe’s greatest untapped resource is not buried beneath its soil or locked inside its balance sheets, it walks our streets, fills our classrooms and hustles daily in a tough economy with remarkable resilience.
Our country’s youthful population represents both a warning and an extraordinary opportunity. How we respond to it will determine whether Zimbabwe’s future is defined by renewal or regret.
Today’s young Zimbabweans are not naïve. They are acutely aware of the widening gap between the language of success that dominates public discourse and the lived reality of limited opportunity.
They hear endless exhortations about hard work, patriotism and entrepreneurship, yet observe ambition rewarded through proximity to power, inherited advantage or opaque systems rather than merit. This contradiction breeds disillusionment, not because young people lack drive, but because they see the rules of the game quietly rewritten against them.
Yet to reduce this generation to frustration alone would be a profound mistake. Zimbabwe’s youth is also the most globally connected, technologically fluent and a socially aware generation the country has ever produced.
They understand digital platforms, informal networks and new forms of value creation in ways previous generations did not. From coding and content creation to cross-border trade and social enterprise, young people are already building parallel economies, often without institutional support and sometimes in spite of it.
What they lack is not ideas or energy, but systems that recognise and reward innovation fairly. Skills training remains misaligned with market realities.
Access to capital is constrained by rigid structures that privilege collateral over creativity.
Decision-making spaces remain dominated by entrenched hierarchies that treat youth participation as symbolic rather than substantive. In such an environment, talent does not disappear, it migrates, disengages or turns inward.
Investment in Zim’s youth
If, however, Zimbabwe were to deliberately invest in its youth through relevant skills, patient capital and transparent institutions, the returns would be transformative.
Young people are uniquely positioned to redefine success away from titles, primitive accumulation and excess, towards innovation, impact and collective progress.
They are less interested in hierarchy for its own sake and more concerned with outcomes that improve livelihoods, expand access and solve real problems.
The cost of ignoring this potential is far higher than the discomfort of reform. Preserving rigid status hierarchies in the face of mass youth exclusion is not only unjust, it is economically reckless. A generation that feels shut out of the future will not remain indefinitely patient. History, both local and global, shows that sustained exclusion, when combined with high awareness and limited opportunity, becomes a volatile mix.
Today, Zimbabwe stands at a crossroads. One path leads to continued frustration, brain drain and social tension. The other leads to renewal driven by a generation ready to build, adapt and lead differently.
Empowering young people is not an act of charity or appeasement, it is a strategic imperative. Zimbabwe’s youth is alive with possibilities. The question is whether the government of today is prepared to meet them halfway.
Conclusion
Ultimately, the question is moral as much as it is economic: what do we choose to value as Zimbabweans? Societies become what they reward.
If Zimbabwe continues to reward visibility over value, status over service and credentials over competence, development will remain an illusion. But if we choose to honour contribution, integrity, impact and if we make it prestigious to fix what is broken and build what is needed, then progress becomes possible.
Development is not a costume one wears, it is a condition one creates. It is visible not in the opulence of a few, but in the dignity of many. Zimbabwe does not need more symbols of success, it needs more substance.
The challenge before us is to redefine achievement away from personal elevation and toward collective advancement. Only then can we honestly speak of progress and mean it.
Ndoro-Mkombachoto is a former academic and banker. She is the chairperson of NetOne Financial Services, a subsidiary of NetOne Telecomms. She has consulted widely in strategy, entrepreneurship, private sector development, financial literacy/inclusion for firms that include Seed Co Africa, Hwange Colliery, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, Standard Bank of South Africa Home Loans, International Finance Corporation/World Bank, United Nations Development Programme, United States Agency for International Development, Danish International Development Agency, Canadian International Development Agency, Kellogg Foundation. Ndoro-Mkombachoto is a writer, property investor, manufacturer and keen gardener. Her podcast on YouTube is @HeartfeltWithGloria. — +263 7713362177/ gloria@ sustainwisestrategies.co.za.
