By Takunda Mandura
Zimbabwe’s Auditor-General has spoken again. The 2024 report on State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) and parastatals reveals the rot within public entities, including unsupported expenditure, non-delivery of goods, uncollected debts, and governance chaos. What’s striking is how predictable these findings have become perennial the same irregularities resurface. The problem is not that we do not know what’s wrong. It is those who see the wrongdoing first, the insiders, who have no safe way to speak up.
That is why Zimbabwe urgently needs legislation protecting whistleblowers.
Auditor-General’s Red Flags: A System in Disarray
The 2024 report covered 176 entities and reviewed 189 financial statements. The findings are damning.
Governance failures: The report flagged 319 governance issues in 2024, up from 314 the previous year. Entities are paying benefits off the books, retaining board members beyond legal limits, and ignoring internal control systems. At the Health Professions Authority of Zimbabwe, for instance, board members overstayed the eight-year term limit, undermining oversight.
Uncollected revenue and debt: The Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA) is sitting on unpaid customs debts and unacquitted Temporary Import Permits (TIPs) dating back years. In 2024, 27,389 electronic and 10,464 manual TIPs remained open, meaning vehicles supposedly entering temporarily may never have left, and duty was never collected.
Procurement scandals
The Auditor-General highlighted non-delivery of goods and services dating back to 2018, with little chance of recovery. At ZINARA, weighbridges in three provinces were non-functional, meaning overloaded trucks passed without paying fees. Money was lost because systems meant to protect revenue were ignored.
Mismanagement of assets: Some SOEs allowed staff to walk away with assets after termination, while others held aged equipment without replacement plans. At ZERA, petroleum samples were stored in ordinary offices because proper labs and storage facilities were not in place, exposing staff to danger.
Late or missing accounts, 50 entities failed to submit financial statements in 2024, up from 45 the previous year. Six of these have arrears of more than three years. That means billions could have been misused without accountability.
The Auditor-General does not mince words; these failures threaten service delivery and cast doubt on many entities’ ability to continue operating.
Why the Same Issues Keep Coming Back
These are not isolated errors. They are symptoms of systemic corruption and weak accountability.
ZINARA submitted financial statements late, violating the Public Finance Management Act. More worryingly, its tollgate staff were altering financial records without oversight, opening the door to fraud.
At ZIMRA, impounded trucks linked to smuggling sat unattended for over 12 months, one loaded with 30 tonnes of lithium ore that could not even be offloaded due to “technical challenges”. This is not inefficiency; it is an open invitation for looting.
The Health Professions Authority paid school fees as benefits outside payroll, avoiding PAYE deductions. That’s tax evasion by a regulatory body.
Each of these irregularities has one thing in commoninsiders saw them first. But without protection, speaking up risks career, reputation, and even personal safety.
Why Whistleblower Protection is the Missing Link
The Auditor-General can only audit after the damage is done. Whistleblowers, on the other hand, can stop corruption before money is lost. Yet Zimbabwe has no comprehensive whistleblower law.
The Prevention of Corruption Act criminalises victimisation of whistleblowers but offers no real protection, no guarantees of confidentiality, no reporting framework, and no compensation if someone loses their job for exposing corruption. That’s why silence prevails.
Looking at the Auditor-General’s own statistics, out of 595 audit findings raised in 2023, only 41% were addressed by 2024. A staggering 39% were ignored completely. With insiders silenced, management can simply wait for the storm to pass.
The Human Cost of Inaction
Every irregularity means services Zimbabweans desperately need are not delivered.
When weighbridges do not work, roads are destroyed faster, increasing accidents and costs.
When ZIMRA leaves thousands of TIPs unacquitted, the state loses tax revenue that could fund hospitals and schools.
When boards sit beyond their term, they become tools of patronage instead of watchdogs.
When hospitals pay ghost workers or buy drugs that never arrive, patients die waiting.
The Auditor-General has done their part. But without whistleblower protection, the system stays reactive, always chasing scandals after the money is gone.
Lessons from Elsewhere
Zimbabwe is not reinventing the wheel. Other African countries have leapt:
South Africa’s Protected Disclosures Act shields employees who report corruption from dismissal or harassment.
Ghana’s Whistleblower Act sets up reporting channels and even rewards whistleblowers with a percentage of recovered funds.
Botswana and Namibia have also enacted whistleblower laws, aligning with the African Union Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption.
By contrast, Zimbabwe’s ‘silence’ signals what some might perceive as tolerance of corruption despite the president Emmerson Mnangagwa and his vice presidents publicly shunning corruption. Zimbabwe had a score of 21 for the 2024 Corruption Perception Index by Transparency International Zimbabwe, meaning it ranks 158 out of 180 countries.
What Zimbabwe’s Law Should Do
For whistleblower protection to work, Zimbabwe’s legislation must include:
Confidential reporting mechanisms, whistleblowers must have safe channels, independent of the institutions they are exposing.
Protection from retaliation, no dismissal, harassment, or blacklisting.
Legal remedies, reinstatement, compensation, or relocation if victimised.
Criminalisation of retaliation, those who punish whistleblowers must face legal consequences.
Incentives consider small rewards tied to recovered funds, as Ghana does.
The Cost of Delay
The Auditor-General reported 319 governance issues, 29 procurement irregularities, 22 asset management failures, and 26 revenue collection problems in 2024. That’s almost 400 serious issues in one year alone.
Each represents money that could have gone to fix roads, buy medicine, or pay teachers. Each represents a whistleblower who probably saw the abuse but stayed quiet.
Without legal protection, silence is rational. People protect themselves, not the state. That is why the same issues come back year after year.
Final Word
Zimbabwe’s corruption problem is not about a lack of audits, committees, or reports. It’s about a culture of silence enforced by fear. The Auditor-General’s 2024 report is another reminder of the billions at stake.
Passing whistleblower protection legislation won’t magically end corruption, but it will break the code of silence. It will empower the very people who know where the rot starts. It will turn insiders into allies of accountability, not prisoners of complicity.
Every day without whistleblower protection is a day corruption wins and ordinary Zimbabweans lose.
Takunda Mandura is the Communications and Advocacy Officer for Transparency International Zimbabwe. He writes in his personal capacity.
