By Discent Collins Bajila
There’s a general belief that Zimbabwe is an exceptional country either by estimation of natural resource endowment or by the industriousness of its people. This belief permeates almost all spaces Zimbabweans find themselves in.
On issues we love about our country, we want to present our case as the best, world class, latest, state of the art or such related terms. On issues we hate about ourselves, we present our case as the worst, least etc. We struggle to accept being somewhere in the middle on any ranking. That’s Zimbabwe Exceptionalism.
Over the past decade, government has been trying to quantify our wealth as a country. This quantification could back our exceptionalism in instances where we have to talk about how much our country is worth in economic terms. The Sovereign Wealth Fund, now known as Mutapa Wealth Fund was created to hold and manage major government shareholdings in strategic sectors such as Mineral Resources, Energy & Trading, ICT, Transport & Logistics, Agriculture & Industrials, Financials Services and Real Estate. This was the surest way to know our actual worth and grow it under centralised coordination.
Towards the end of 2025, Grant Thornton, an independent audit firm, reported it’s qualified opinion on the books of Mutapa Investment Fund. In audit language, a qualified opinion means that the books have issues that prevent auditors from giving full assurance to investors, shareholders and other stakeholders.
Perhaps, we should start with unpacking Mutapa Investment Fund a little bit. Its core purpose is to safeguard national wealth, generate income for the country, and ensure that future generations benefit from today’s resources.
By December 2024, the Fund reported assets worth approximately USD 14.9 billion, making it one of the most significant public financial institutions in the country.
However, the 2024 audited financial statements raise serious issues that the public needs to understand. The Fund did not receive a clean audit. Instead, independent auditors issued what is known as a qualified opinion. As explained earlier, this does not mean the accounts are completely unreliable, but it does mean there are material problems significant enough to prevent the auditors from giving full assurance. In public finance terms, a qualified audit is a clear warning sign.
The central concern highlighted by the audit is whether the assets held by the Mutapa Investment Fund are properly valued. When the Government of Zimbabwe transferred it’s shares and investments into the Fund in 2023 and 2024, international accounting rules required those assets to be measured at fair market value at the time of transfer. This was not done. As a result, assets worth tens of billions of dollars were recorded without a confirmed starting value. The independent auditors explicitly state that the financial impact of this error cannot be determined. In simple terms, no one can say with certainty what some of these assets are truly worth.
Compounding this problem is the use of unaudited financial information to value many of the Fund’s investments. More than USD 11 billion of MIF’s assets were valued using company accounts that had not been independently audited. For example, when shareholding at National Railways of Zimbabwe was transferred from Government to Mutapa Investment Fund, the value of the shares was not independently measured or audited. Thus, the valuations being used to date rely heavily on assumptions.
Because the underlying figures could not be verified, auditors could not confirm whether the reported values are accurate, overstated, or understated. Given how loud we are when singing about our education and our economic potential as a country, it is strange that valuations of our key national assets are based on assumptions.
Another major issue relates to currency translation. Many companies under the Mutapa Investment Fund reportedly operate using Zimbabwe Gold (Zig). International accounting standards require financial statements in such currency regimes to be adjusted for inflation before being converted into United States Dollars. The independent audit found that in the case of Mutapa Investment Fund, this inflation adjustment was not consistently done. In addition, different and inappropriate USD:ZWG exchange rates were used across companies. This means that some of the US dollar figures presented in the Fund’s accounts may not reflect economic reality. They may be phantom.
The independent audit also draws attention to uncertainty around mining royalties. Read together, the Mines and Minerals Act, Finance Act, Income Tax Act and Statutory Instrument 189 of 2022 (SI 189/2022) require certain mineral royalties to be paid into the Mutapa Investment Fund so that natural resources benefit the nation over the long term.
However, at the time of audit, legislative amendments were still pending, and the payment framework was not fully settled. This creates uncertainty about whether the Fund will reliably receive these revenues, raising broader questions about how effectively Zimbabwe is capturing value from its mineral wealth.
While it is clear that the Mutapa Investment Fund has the potential to be a powerful tool for economic stability and intergenerational equity, the 2024 audit shows that serious problems remain in valuation discipline, currency treatment, and financial transparency. Until these issues are fully resolved, claims about the true value of Zimbabwe’s sovereign wealth should be treated with caution. Our Zimbabwe Exceptionalism, without a true measure of our resources and our collective commitment to transparency and accountability, becomes just a loud yawn. Public officials must appreciate that accountability and transparency are not slogans but practices that are clear, verifiable, and accessible to all citizens
Given the 2024 independent audit findings, our real worth as a country remains unknown. Are we the best, the worst or just somewhere in the middle?
Ziqunywa amakhanda ziyekwe.
Discent Collins Bajila is the Member of Parliament for Emakhandeni Luveve Constituency in Bulawayo