Online Reporter
Tedious Ncube
AS we begin the year of our Lord 2026, it is both proper and necessary to extend warm wishes for a prosperous new year. However, the purpose of this article goes far beyond seasonal goodwill. Its central objective is to demonstrate practically and philosophically how individuals and societies can achieve deliberate outcomes through one enduring instrument: policy.
I approach life from a systems endpoint, specifically a policy lens. Whether at the level of the individual, the family unit, the community, district, province, or nation-state, policy remains the most reliable and scalable tool for influencing change. Outcomes do not happen by accident; they are designed, enabled or constrained by policy choices.
On 19 December 2025, I was privileged to attend what became one of the most significant educational and developmental gatherings of the year. Amid a constellation of youth leaders and prominent figures from Zimbabwe and beyond, I received an invitation to Honourable Taurai Kandishaya’s birthday celebration.
At the time, I was in Tsholotsho District, engaged in a study retreat. What compelled me to attend was the explicit framing of the invitation itself, this would not be a conventional social gathering, but a deliberate platform for development discourse, anchored in the rural transformation agenda.
Consistent with my own commitment to rural development, I honoured the invitation and travelled to Goromonzi.
Upon arriving in Harare, we regrouped and travelled by bus to the farm, located in a relatively remote area. I have always viewed purposively composed travel spaces as nurseries of discourse, and this journey was no exception. This was not an ordinary bus ride, it was a mobile seminar of focused, development-oriented young people.
The symbolism was striking. We travelled in an old AVM bus iconic of communal journeys yet it was fully modernised, equipped with connectivity and technology. The experience itself mirrored Zimbabwe’s broader development trajectory — historical foundations fused with modern capability.
Thanks to sustained national investment in ICT infrastructure, I had uninterrupted connectivity throughout the journey. This allowed me to reflect, research and contextualise Zimbabwe’s communal land system against global benchmarks.
Zimbabwe’s land tenure framework is one of its most under-appreciated strategic advantages. Every Zimbabwean regardless of age, gender or race is entitled to access communal land, free of charge, under a clearly defined tenure system. From a World Bank land tenure policy perspective, tenure is about defining relationships between people and land who can use it, control it, transfer it and exclude others, under statutory or customary law.
Measured against this standard, Zimbabwe’s land tenure system is progressive and aligned with international best practice. In fact, Zimbabwe stands out as the only African country that has fully dismantled colonial land administration systems and reclaimed land sovereignty at scale. The philosophy underpinning this system is inherently developmental and redistributive, designed to eradicate poverty and stimulate broad-based economic growth.
While in transit, I examined global farm size comparisons. What we often dismiss as “small” communal farms in Zimbabwe are, by international standards, commercially viable units. In India, the average farm size is approximately one hectare. In China, it is about 0,96 hectares. These figures are smaller than the minimum land accessible to communal farmers in Zimbabwe. The implication is clear — the average communal farmer in Zimbabwe has a greater latent productive potential than farmers in many highly productive global economies.
As we travelled, development was visible not as an abstract statistic, but as lived reality. Dualised roads, housing developments, power infrastructure, communication networks and even large-scale industrial investments such as lithium processing facilities lined the route. Electricity, water systems, tarred roads and mobile signal extended from Harare to the farm.
These are not trivial amenities. They form the macro-economic foundation for productivity, value addition and market access. Many communal farmers across the Global South lack these fundamentals.
Zimbabwe was once among them, deliberately so under colonial rule.
Colonial land policy, particularly the Land Apportionment Act of 1930, systematically displaced indigenous populations into so-called “reserves,” deliberately stripped of infrastructure, water access, roads, electricity, and communication. This was not accidental, it was policy by design, meant to prevent Africans from competing economically with settler capital. Infrastructure was selectively installed where colonial commercial interests existed.
Against this historical backdrop, the current infrastructural reality represents a profound structural reversal.
Upon arrival at the farm, the evidence of wealth and productivity was unmistakable both figuratively and literally. The parking area alone reflected millions of dollars in accumulated capital. Yet beyond the symbols of wealth, what stood out was the system.
The farm was a fully integrated productive unit — livestock, poultry, crops and value chains operating in harmony. Inputs for food and hospitality were sourced almost entirely from the farm itself. More than 30 people were directly and indirectly employed. Produce supplied local markets, substituting imports and strengthening local food systems.
From a policy and utilisation standpoint, this single communal farm demonstrated the capacity to generate revenues exceeding USD1 million per annum. The conclusion is unavoidable, Zimbabwe does not suffer from a lack of opportunity, it suffers from uneven utilisation of opportunity.
The central question, therefore, is not whether wealth creation is possible, but how to scale awareness, skills and intentionality particularly among youth in places such as Nkulumane, Chitungwiza and other high-density communities.
If one million Zimbabweans replicated this model, Zimbabwe would produce one million millionaires by 2030. This is not an exaggerated ambition. Hong Kong has over 150 000 millionaires. New York City alone has close to 400 000. A million is simply a number achievable with the right mindset, systems, and policy alignment.
So, if China could lift over 600 million people out of poverty in four decades, there is no structural reason Zimbabwe cannot produce one million youth millionaires within four years. The resources exist. The policy framework exists. The evidence exists.
What remains is deliberate action.
n Tedious Ncube is an entrepreneur and academic.
