TREVOR & Associates (T&A) managing partner Trevor Ncube has warned against a deepening infrastructural decay and systemic disorder that have eroded the country’s foundations over decades, driving away skilled professionals and entrenching a culture of incompetence.
T&A is a strategic advisory and communications consultancy helping leaders to navigate complexity with clarity, integrity and impact.
Ncube is the owner and chairperson of local media house, Alpha Media Holdings, which publishes The Standard, Zimbabwe Independent, NewsDay, Southern Eye and owns broadcaster, Heart and Soul.
Speaking at the T&A’s Think Tank 2026 event, Ncube urged stakeholders to unite in rebuilding the nation, warning that the current trajectory is unsustainable.
He said Zimbabwe continued to suffer from an acute brain drain, as skilled workers leave the country in search of better opportunities abroad.
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“We are tired of watching a nation of extraordinary people sink in war and ordinary outcomes. We are tired of seeing talents wandering, standards abandoned and potential wasted,” Ncube said.
“We invited you because this room contains people who can bend the arc of this country’s future, people whose decisions reap the fruit of businesses, communities, families and every single child. Let’s stop and think about the future of this country.”
The event brought together some of the leading executives in their fields to tackle the challenges facing Zimbabwe.
Some of the invited guests included Memory Nguwi (a human capital expert), Thebe Ikalafeng (pan-African branding and marketing strategist), Anesu Daka (financial expert), Janah Ncube (pan African strategist) and Ken Sharpe (WestProp Holdings chief executive officer).
“Nearly half of the population live below the poverty line. Five hundred thousand children of school-going age are not in school. Our cities are crumbling, our water infrastructure is collapsing, our public debt exceed US$23 billion and remain, in IMF [International Monetary Fund]’s own words, unsustainable,” Ncube said.
“IMF says our debt is unsustainable and here is what troubles me the most. We have normalised this . . . We watch our best teachers, nurses and engineers board planes to other countries and we carry on.”
He said the kind of revival needed in Zimbabwe could not be built on one person, but on a collective, including those who lead in their respective fields.
“So, today is not about someone and someone, because someone and someone are no longer around. Today is about me and you. Are we going to build a department that is greedy, that is selfish, where everyone scrambles to take care of themselves at the expense of everyone else?
“Or are we going to build a department that is caring, that is empathetic, that works together for our common good?
“Because if we are honest, we are dangerously close to impressing that person and 2026 has to be the year in which we decide that things are going to be different.”
Ncube said the biggest problem that destroyed most institutions and society was accountability.
“So, the problem is not ability, the problem is accountability. We know how to do better,” he said, adding that lately Zimbabwe is in a crisis of normalising mediocrity.
“It was eroded by a system that rewarded connections over competence, loyalty over merit and silence over accountability. Now we are paying the price.”
Ncube said the country’s policies should be clear, especially entrepreneurial, so as to allow entrepreneurs to develop.
He challenged individuals to take responsibility for national development and to build a society anchored on order, integrity and long-term vision.
“Zimbabwe changes only when each one of us changes. If you want a new Zimbabwe, you’ve got to change. You’ve got to change in the direction that you want Zimbabwe to change. You can’t be stubborn and go to a breaking point, but want a new Zimbabwe and you’re not prepared to change,” Ncube said.
“When your business focuses on genuine value, when you are driven by ethics, not experience, when you pride on hard work over shortcuts,
when you demand productivity, not performance theatre, when you refuse to participate in corruption, even when it costs you.”
Anesu Daka, the founder and group chief executive officer of Docere Holdings, urged stakeholders to support initiatives aimed at rebuilding Zimbabwe’s economy and ensuring sustainable growth. -newsda
