Zimbabwe’s independence is fake when millions flee to live under white rule

When the Union Jack was lowered and the Zimbabwean flag was hoisted for the first time on April 18, 1980, the air was thick with anticipation, hope, and pride.

A new chapter had begun—one in which black Zimbabweans, long marginalized and oppressed under colonial rule, would finally be the masters of their destiny.

Independence was sold as the gateway to dignity, prosperity, and empowerment.

Yet, over four decades later, what confronts us is not a fulfilled promise but a haunting betrayal.

Zimbabwe’s so-called independence is a grotesque illusion, a tragic deception that has condemned millions to hopelessness while driving them—ironically—back to the very lands they were supposedly liberated from.

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A nation that fought valiantly for self-rule is now exporting its people en masse to former colonial powers.

There is a disturbing symbolism in this mass exodus.

Millions of Zimbabweans—both skilled professionals and the unskilled—are fleeing to countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, and South Africa.

They are not going on vacation. They are fleeing.

Fleeing from hunger, from poverty, from political repression, from a healthcare system on its knees, and from an economy that has long since stopped functioning.

They are seeking not just jobs or comfort, but survival—ironically, under the very white governments that once colonized us.

If that doesn’t shake the very foundations of what we call “independence,” then perhaps we are not yet ready to face the truth.

What, after all, is independence if over 80 percent of your population lives in poverty, surviving on less than US$2 a day?

What liberation is it when over 90 percent of the people have no formal jobs and must resort to street vending, cross-border hustling, or cart-pushing to make ends meet—activities that provide no job security, no decent income, no medical cover, no pension, and no hope for the future?

Zimbabwe’s streets are flooded with unemployed graduates, desperate vendors, and once-proud professionals now reduced to hawking anything from vegetables to mobile phone chargers.

That is not independence.

That is a slow, state-sanctioned erosion of dignity.

Even worse, while the majority wallow in desperation, a select few—connected to the ruling elite—are swimming in obscene wealth.

These politically connected individuals win multi-million-dollar government tenders without open bidding, often without delivering a single brick of the promised project.

Public infrastructure projects are routinely left incomplete or are executed so shoddily they become hazards.

The result is a country where roads are cratered with potholes, hospitals have no medicine, and public schools have turned into shells of their former selves.

Many of these facilities were built during the colonial era—structures that, although designed by the colonizer, at least functioned.

Today, our “liberators” have not only failed to build better alternatives; they have let those colonial relics collapse.

The public health system is in tatters.

Women die during childbirth in filthy hospital corridors.

Emergency surgeries are delayed because there is no anesthetic.

Patients are told to bring their own bandages, painkillers, or even gloves.

Meanwhile, government officials and their families fly to South Africa, India, or Singapore for private medical care—funded, of course, by taxpayers whose only experience of the healthcare system is neglect and death.

Our education system is no better.

Once a proud beacon in Africa, Zimbabwean education is now a tragic mockery.

Underpaid teachers, crumbling classrooms, and non-functional rural schools paint a bleak picture of a future already lost.

All this has triggered one of the largest brain drains in Africa.

Zimbabwe has hemorrhaged doctors, engineers, teachers, and nurses to countries that offer them the respect and conditions their own homeland denies them.

Even the unskilled are escaping in droves, preferring to work as domestic workers, farmhands, or janitors in foreign lands than remain in a nation that has turned survival into a daily lottery.

What does it say about Zimbabwe’s so-called independence when even the most basic aspirations—health, education, food, security—are more accessible under white-led countries than under a black government?

This paradox is as damning as it is painful.

Independence was supposed to mean more opportunities for black Zimbabweans, more prosperity, and more dignity.

It was meant to correct historical injustices and elevate the majority to the same level of opportunity that had once been reserved for the minority.

Yet, today, black Zimbabweans are arguably worse off than they were under colonial rule.

This is not to glorify colonialism—its brutality is well documented.

But the uncomfortable truth is that under white minority rule, the country’s infrastructure was functional, the economy stable, and institutions relatively competent.

Today, Zimbabwe is defined by institutional collapse, corruption without consequence, and a government that rules through fear and propaganda.

The betrayal is profound.

Those who came to power promising liberation have instead become the new oppressors.

The nationalist rhetoric remains, but it rings hollow against the reality of poverty, repression, and despair.

The same leaders who chant anti-colonial slogans at rallies are the ones sending their children to study in London, holiday in New York, and get treated in Johannesburg.

It is not the ghost of Ian Smith that has failed Zimbabwe—it is the living greed of those who promised to be our saviors.

Zimbabwe’s independence, then, is little more than a flag and a national anthem.

It is not true liberation when people are still enslaved by poverty.

It is not sovereignty when citizens are dying to leave.

It is not nationhood when one percent of the population lives like kings while the rest eat from bins.

The tragedy is not just in what we have lost, but in what could have been.

With our abundant natural resources, educated populace, and rich land, Zimbabwe could have been a model African nation.

Instead, it has become a cautionary tale.

What should shame our leaders most is not the criticism from the international community, nor the statistics that expose their failure.

It is the reality that their own people—black people—are voting with their feet and choosing to live under white governments.

These citizens are not fleeing from sanctions. They are fleeing from bad governance.

They are not being pulled by propaganda. They are being pushed by hunger.

That is a national disgrace.

Independence is not a date on the calendar.

It is a lived reality.

Until Zimbabwe can offer dignity, opportunity, and security to its people, its independence is fake—a hollow shell of broken promises.

And the longer we pretend otherwise, the deeper the betrayal becomes.

• Tendai Ruben Mbofana is a social justice advocate and writer. Please feel free to WhatsApp or Call: +263715667700 | +263782283975, or email: mbofana.tendairuben73@gmail.com, or visit website: https://mbofanatendairuben.news.blog/