By Tendai Biti
FROM the very beginning, we argued strenuously that this regime lacked the sincerity and boldness to carry out a meaningful debt resolution strategy. Much to the dismay of many in the diplomatic community, we warned that the so-called Structured Debt Dialogue Platform would collapse. The reason was simple: this regime is too dishonest and too insincere to sustain such a process.
We also argued that it was incapable of meeting the huge qualitative and quantitative benchmarks necessary for a Staff Monitored Program (SMP) with the IMF. On the political front, its balance sheet—marked by stolen elections, violence, and systemic abuse of the rule of law—was never going to be sanitised. After all, no authoritarian liberation movement has ever reformed itself out of power.
Sadly, we were right. Years later, the regime is still failing to secure even a basic SMP from the IMF. It has refused to publish two IMF Article IV Reports—an omission found only among the most rogue regimes with mountains of dirt to hide. Not even Patrick Chinamasa sank this low during his time at Treasury.
But it is corruption—and more specifically debt-fuelled corruption—that will ultimately sink the regime’s debt resolution efforts. Serious concerns also remain around its move towards a mono-currency, its artificial tight monetary policy, export surrender requirements, and regressive taxes.
Zimbabwe’s official stock of public debt stands at US$21.5 billion, with domestic debt at US$8.9 billion. The country is in debt distress with an unsustainable burden. Having defaulted on its international debt obligations in the early 1990s, Zimbabwe is technically insolvent.
Countries in debt distress typically embark on multilateral debt relief programmes, with the goal of debt cancellation, forgiveness, or restructuring. Such processes have strict rules anchored on fairness, transparency, and the equal treatment of creditors. Unfortunately, words like “fairness,” “transparency,” and “equal treatment” do not exist in this regime’s lexicon.
A key component of debt relief is securing an IMF Staff Monitored Program—a voluntary set of agreed reforms that builds trust and establishes a track record. Efforts such as the Structured Dialogue Platform, Chinamasa’s Lima Plan, and ZAADDS were all steps in this direction. But the disclosures made in the Mid-Term 2025 Budget Review and in the 2024 and 2025 Public Debt Reports are as shocking as they are suffocating.
Debt repayments have now become the new method of looting. In the last ten months alone, Treasury has paid out more than US$1 billion to local cartels—in flagrant breach of the Constitution, public debt laws, and the pari passu rule of international law.
In 2024, the regime paid US$775.95 million in debt repayments. Of this, US$358 million went towards domestic debt, largely in Treasury Bills. Zimbabweans know the beneficiaries of these TBs and the controversies surrounding them—for example, the US$1.9 billion in TBs issued to buy out private shareholders in Kuvimba. Another US$417.97 million supposedly went to external debt payments. But this is a lie. Only US$3.83 million was paid to traditional lenders such as the World Bank or AfDB. The bulk—US$304.23 million—went to service the RBZ’s contested legacy quasi-fiscal debts, which were never verified by the Auditor-General or Parliament, and sneaked into law through dubious Debt Assumption Bills.
By June 2025, despite a collapsing budget and growing domestic arrears, the regime had already paid US$462.29 million in debt repayments—US$286 million for domestic TBs and US$176.29 million for disputed RBZ debts. Of this, just US$2.8 million was paid to traditional lenders.
Thus, in less than 12 months, the regime has paid an astounding US$1.238 billion in dubious domestic repayments. The consequences are dire. These payments crowd out funding for social services and development. They are made without parliamentary or public scrutiny. They offend international creditors by violating the pari passu rule that demands equal treatment of all lenders. Above all, they represent brazen looting and state capture.
Debt repayments have now replaced Command Agriculture as the principal vehicle of public plunder. Zimbabwe has truly become a kleptocracy.
Cry, the beloved country. Just cry.
Tendai Biti was Zimbabwe’s finance minister between 2009 and 2013
