Corporate Governance and Credibility Gap: Four Decades of Struggling Reform Efforts in Zimbabwe

• Published in: African renaissance 2022-12, Vol.19 (4), p.105-126
• Main Authors: Matambo, Munashe, Moyo, Gorden, Mukonza, Ricky Munyaradzi, Chigova, Lewis Edwin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Accountability; Banking; Banks (Finance); Best practice; Campaign finance reform; Cartels; Central banks; Chief executive officers; Corporate governance; Corruption; Credibility; Governance; Government; Government business enterprises; Humanities; Interlocking directorates; International economic relations; Laws, regulations and rules; Leadership; Legislation; Looting; Militarization; Mugabe, Robert; Officials and employees; Patronage; Political aspects; Political leadership; Political parties; Politics; Public enterprise; Public finance; Public policy; Public sector; Public sector reforms; Reforms; Rent-seeking; Scandals; State Enterprises and Parastatals; Transparency; Uganda; Wages & salaries; Zimbabwe
• ISSN: 1744-2532; 2516-5305
• DOI: 10.31920/2516-5305/2022/19n4a5

Since attaining independence in 1980, the government of Zimbabwe has adopted numerous reform measures aimed at improving public sector corporate governance. These include the leadership code, the central bank’s Corporate Governance Guidelines, the Corporate Guidelines for State Enterprises and Parastatals (SEPs) and the Zimbabwe Code on Corporate Governance (ZIMCODE). Furthermore, corporate governance principles and best practices were embedded in the Constitution of Zimbabwe in 2013, the Public Finance Management Act [Chapter 22:19] and the Public Entities Corporate Governance Act [Chapter 10:31]. Despite the adoption of the aforementioned reform measures, corporate governance principles and best practices have not taken root in Zimbabwe’s public sector. Scholars such as Moyo, Zhou, Chigudu, Ncube and Maunganidze and Chavhunduka and Sikwala have conducted research on public sector corporate governance in Zimbabwe. However, their work does not comprehensively explain why public sector corporate governance has failed to take root in Zimbabwe’s body politic, especially among SEPs. Thus, this paper seeks to fill this lacuna in academic literature. Data was collected through documentary search. Government policy documents such as ZIMCODE and legislation that provides for corporate governance, ruling party policy documents such as the leadership code, reports by the Bretton Woods institutions journal and newspaper articles were analysed. The research findings reveal that public sector corporate governance reforms have failed to take root in Zimbabwe because of systematic corruption or rent seeking behaviour, captured anti-corruption bodies, patronage networks, party/state conflation, militarisation of the state and absence of political will. We argue that before reform measures aimed at improving public sector corporate governance in Zimbabwe can take root, Zimbabwe’s body politic needs to be demilitarised and liberated from the predatory securocrat comprador bourgeoise and politically linked cartels that have captured the state.