IN the smoke-filled boardrooms of Harare, the gleaming offices of Nairobi, and the lavish penthouses of Lagos, a new form of social contract is being drafted.
It is not written on paper, but displayed in the shimmering paint of a luxury SUV gifted to a local celebrity, or in the keys to a sedan handed to a compliant community leader.
This is the era of selective, performative generosity, a cruel theatre where the top 1% hold the majority at their mercy, not through empowerment, but through the strategic distribution of status symbols that are as impractical as they are insulting.
Across Zimbabwe and the wider African continent, inequality is not just increasing; it is being weaponised. While millions grapple with the brutal arithmetic of soaring food prices, crumbling public healthcare, and youth unemployment that stifles dreams, a parallel universe exists.
Here, the elite engage in a spectacle of giving that serves not the needs of the people, but the ego and political interests of the giver. The gift of a car, a machine built for open roads, to a family in a community with no running water or a young graduate with no job, is not an act of charity.
It is a symbol of a profound moral decay and a stark illustration of our deepening social and economic injustices.
Gift of the car
This trend is a symptom of a sick society. The moral compass has shattered. We have replaced the virtue of building robust public systems with the vice of personalised patronage.
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What does it say about our values when a businessman is celebrated for gifting a handful of cars, yet his corporations pay minimal taxes, depriving the state treasury of funds that could build the roads those very cars will use?
This is not philanthropy; it is a public relations stunt designed to mask the systemic extraction of wealth.
Our national character, once defined by resilience, hard work, and communal pride, has been systematically eroded, replaced by a frantic scramble for the crumbs falling from the tables of a privileged few.
The social ills plaguing us are no longer isolated incidents but an interconnected web of desperation.
From a social justice perspective, the social contract has been shredded. Social justice demands fair distribution of opportunities and privileges within a society.
What we have is a system of extreme inequality, not born of merit, but of patronage and corruption. The elite have access to dollar-denominated incomes, private healthcare, and overseas education, while the majority are condemned to a collapsing public system.
This creates a two-tiered society: a protected aristocracy and a desperate precariat.
Curse of the road
This social injustice is profound. These gifts create a hierarchy of need, pitting the poor against each other. They foster a culture of flattery, where loyalty is not to principle or progress, but to the next potential benefactor.
The message is clear: do not demand accountable governance or economic justice; instead, hope to be noticed by the benevolent billionaire. It is a modern-day feudalism, dressed in the garb of corporate social responsibility.
Economically, this behaviour exacerbates the very inequalities it pretends to alleviate. The resources spent on a single luxury vehicle could seed dozens of small businesses, fund university scholarships for an entire village, or equip a local clinic with essential medicines.
This misallocation of capital is a tragedy. It reveals an economy that is spectacularly efficient at concentrating wealth at the top but catastrophically failing at creating broad-based prosperity.
From an economic justice lens, the system is fundamentally rigged. The grand theft of hyperinflation that wiped out pensions and savings, the legacy of the land reform that was mismanaged into agricultural collapse, and the culture of cronyism where lucrative contracts and opportunities are reserved for the connected few, these are not accidents.
They are deliberate acts of economic dispossession. The state has failed in its most basic duty to create an environment where honest work is rewarded.
When a nurse’s monthly salary is equivalent to the cost of a bag of groceries, the state is effectively telling its people that their labour, their skill, and their contribution are worthless.
In Zimbabwe, where the informal sector is the lifeblood for many, the sight of a gifted V8 navigating potholed streets past women selling tomatoes to pay school fees is a jarring portrait of a broken social contract.
The car does not speak to their day-to-day needs; it mocks them. It is a monument to misplaced priorities, a symbol that the aspirations of the elite are fundamentally divorced from the realities of the masses.
What must be done?
The solution is not another government handout or a hollow political slogan. The solution begins with a radical recommitment to justice.
It requires taking down the architecture of cronyism, prosecuting grand corruption, restoring the rule of law, and investing in institutions, not individuals.
It means creating a genuine, inclusive economy where value is created through production and innovation, not through political connection.
We cannot gift our way out of a crisis of inequality. The solution requires a fundamental shift from patronage to justice, from spectacle to structure. Here is what must be done:
Demand Progressive Taxation: We must champion transparent and progressive tax systems. The wealthy must pay their fair share. Closing loopholes and combating illicit financial flows are non-negotiable. This revenue is the lifeblood for investing in public goods - education, health, and infrastructure — that benefit all, not just a chosen few.
Invest in productive sectors, not conspicuous consumption: Governments and the private sector must be incentivised to invest in agriculture, manufacturing, and technology. We need policies that support small and medium enterprises, the true engines of job creation, not policies that favour conglomerates.
Strengthen institutions, not personalities: Our hope must lie in strong, independent institutions — the judiciary, anti-corruption commissions, and a free press. We must move away from a culture that idolises the “big man” and instead build systems that are accountable to every citizen.
Re-orient philanthropy: True philanthropy should be silent, strategic, and systemic. It should fund schools, not sports cars; clinics, not celebrity endorsements. The 1% who genuinely wish to give back must partner with communities to identify and fund sustainable projects that address root causes, not symptoms.
The era of the flashy, irrelevant gift must end. The people of Zimbabwe and Africa do not need tokens of pity from the high table. They demand a seat at it.
They do not need a car to navigate a road to nowhere; they need the tools to build a new, inclusive highway towards a future where prosperity is not a gift, but a shared right.
The time for choosing between a handout and a hand-up is over.
Our very survival as a cohesive society depends on choosing the latter.
- Millin is a social and economic justice ambassador. These weekly New Horizon articles, published in the Zimbabwe Independent, are coordinated by Lovemore Kadenge, an independent consultant, managing consultant of Zawale Consultants (Pvt) Ltd, past president of the Zimbabwe Economics Society and past president of the Chartered Governance & Accountancy Institute in Zimbabwe (CGIZ). --- kadenge.zes@gmail.com or mobile +263 772 382 852.
