By Paidamoyo Muzulu
Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. GOVERNMENTS across the globe compete to look after the rich.
The rich have to be super rich. It’s a new lifestyle.
People compete to hustle so that they can live rent free.
Zimbabwe has joined the bandwagon and with a bang.
In a moment of madness, Zimbabwe promised to tax the rich.
Even the poor who have nothing to their name protested.
They protested in all manners they could and even hurled insults at an insensitive government that taxes the rich.
Finance minister Mthuli Ncube had proposed a wealth tax of 2,5% on properties worth US$100 000 and above.
After the protests, the listening government reduced the tax to 1%.
However, the super patriots at Treasury realised the rich can’t and should not be taxed for they help the poor.
The Treasury realised taxing the rich has detrimental effects to the hustlers.
They will simply stop hustling and importing the SUVs and limousines.
They will open bank accounts in offshore countries or simply migrate to tax havens.
The wealth tax was enacted in the Finance Act. It was a mistake.
The Treasury became aware of the foolishness of taxing the rich.
It devised a noble plan to avoid taxing the rich.
The Treasury had a light bulb moment and knew it cannot implement the tax because it is complicated.
I guess you get the drift. It is easy to tax the poor because calculating their tax is not complicated.
You slap a 0,05% fast-food tax, you make a flat 15% value-added tax.
The poor who use mobile money are easy to tax, hit them with a mobile money transfer tax.
The Sunday Mail edition of September 14, 2025 led with the screaming headline: Government shelves wealth tax.
Finance deputy minister Kudakwashe Mnangagwa told Parliament: “Since the introduction of legislation requiring selected wealthy individuals to contribute to the fiscus through a wealth tax, our government temporarily shelved the implementation thereof, pending conclusion of requisite administrative modalities informed by concerns raised by some stakeholders.”
This is not new. The rich have always enjoyed this type of treatment.
This is the same treatment the rich receive when they decide to invest in Zimbabwe.
They get tax holidays, because they are giving the indigenous poor jobs on less than minimum wage.
At one time, BHP came and invested in Makwiro platinum.
It was given a five-year tax holiday.
It mined along the Great Dyke for five good years and in the fifth year it sold the claims to Implats SA and the mines are now known as Zimplats.
They packed their bags and left. Never paid a cent on corporate tax.
The same treatment has been extended to Chinese communication companies — Huawei and ZTE.
They operate on tax holidays.
Forget about their handsets and MiFi gadgets.
They are doing multi-million projects for TelOne, NetOne, Telecel, PowerTel, Africom, Liquid Telcoms and Econet digitisation projects.
In the mining sector, the big global mining companies enjoy lots of tax breaks and even deferred taxation.
They are star companies because they brought foreign direct investment (FDI).
They offer jobs to Zimbabwe’s poor and they have to be thanked for that.
The big companies are also involved in tax deductible corporate social responsibility.
They build classroom blocks, an odd clinic or construct some sports facilities and enjoy tax rebates for helping the poor.
Helping the poor is a noble thing.
So noble that the government has to reward the rich with tax breaks for serving the wretched of the earth.
This is built on the single most important religion — neoliberalism — formed and backed at the altars of the Bretton Woods institutions.
The altars that serve the rich and preach trickle down economics.
The rich in Zimbabwe were given a reprieve.
Time to restructure their wealth into portfolios that can’t be taxed.
The properties have since been donated to trusts or even re-evaluated so that now they are below the tax threshold.
The rich are extremely blessed.
They enjoy the support of both the government and the majority poor.
Both try hard to get the attention of the rich and some are even prepared to lay their lives down for the rich, no matter what is the cause.
The poor that cried hoarse when the wealth tax was introduced acted as if nothing happened.
Their analytic skills took leave.
They did not marry the poor service delivery to the missed revenue.
The poor have been conditioned to be materialistic.
They need to amass wealth and become ultra-rich.
They need to grow themselves outside of taxation.
That is the new prime target for the majority of the poor.
Few would want to be Sir Wicknell [controversial businessman Wicknell Chivayo], but many would definitely welcome his handouts of luxury vehicles and cash.
The mbinga culture, flaunting of wealth, has taken root in Zimbabwe and the government has given its stamp of approval.
This has become a global phenomenon.
Some countries have built their wealth on providing banking services based on secrecy.
Safekeeping looted funds for despots and crooks.
Some have made a life from providing goods and services to African governments after paying their leaders bribes.
Most now want to become politicians.
They want to join the only trade that takes them from being poor to rich in a twinkle.
Politicians (MPs) don’t pay tollgate fees.
They don’t pay parking fees.
They get free stands for serving the people.
They get luxury SUVs for being your representative.
You see, being rich frees one from paying tax.
The Constitution is a luxury that is selectively used.
They, all in Parliament and the majority poor, have no time to read about equitable taxation, where all have to carry their fair share of the tax burden.
Government has a duty to support every citizen, not only the rich.
Source: NewsDay
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