Zimbabwe's skills base stands at 38.25%, leaving a 61.75% gap in critical areas needed to drive economic growth and industrial development, Higher and Tertiary Education Minister Frederick Shava has said.
Speaking at the High-Level Ministerial and Parliamentary Roundtable of Africa Skills Week 2026 in Harare, which began on Monday, Shava said the findings of the country's 2018 national critical skills audit highlighted significant shortages in key sectors.
The audit, described by Shava as Zimbabwe's first comprehensive assessment of its kind in 34 years, found shortages of about 94% in engineering and technology and 97% in natural and applied sciences.
It also revealed a mismatch between the skills produced by universities and technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institutions and those required by employers.
"These findings were not a verdict of failure. They were a mandate for transformation," Shava said.
"The audit exposed a fundamental disconnect between what our institutions were teaching and what our industries needed."
He said the Zimbabwe Manpower Development Fund (ZIMDEF) had invested US$50 million in TVET over the past 18 months, including support for apprenticeship programmes.
ZIMDEF collects a 1% training levy from registered employers and uses the funds to finance apprenticeships, equip tertiary institutions, develop infrastructure and provide rebates to businesses investing in workforce training.
However, Shava acknowledged that challenges remained, including fragmented coordination among institutions, incomplete labour market information systems and difficulties in ensuring that graduates acquire skills relevant to the changing economy.
“Nyika inovakwa nevene vayo!” (Zimbabwe will be built by Zimbabweans!) is a catch slogan but, the truth be told, Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown, forget the economic boom needed to achieve vision 2030, has continued. The national economy responses to sound economic policies and not wishful slogans! “Nyika inovakwa nevene vayo!” is just an idiotic slogan. Period!
The Zanu PF regime acknowledges that there is a “shortages of about 94% in engineering and technology and 97% in natural and applied sciences!” 46 years of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and tyrannical oppression have left the country is economic ruins and political paralysis. Millions of Zimbabweans, including highly skilled professionals, have left the country in droves as economic and/or political refugees.
So if there is such a chasm shortage, 94%, of engineers - who is building Zimbabwe brick by brick?
The nation has many examples of mega deal projects that have taken forever to complete such as the Bulawayo to Victoria Falls road and other like the late Wicknell Chivayo US$50 million 100MW Gwanda Solar Plant, ZESA paid him the money and all they ever got was a security guard hut!
Mnangagwa’s promise to turn Zimbabwe into an upper middle income nation by 2030, the so called vision 2030, is a lie! He conned his party and the nation to pass CAA3 extending his stay in office by 2 years on the basis of a lie!
Many Zimbabweans are aware vision 2030 is a mirage and this will become mockingly obvious with each passing day as the country sinks deeper and deeper into abject poverty. 49.2% of Zimbabweans are living on US$3 or less a day, according to a recent WB report. Will Zimbabweans still buy the nonsense of postponing 2028 elections on the basis of an obvious and mocking lie of vision 2030?
This is the question that is keeping Mnangagwa and his cronies awake at night! And Minister Shava’s admission of the yawning gap of skilled manpower - proof there is no meaningful development because there are no engineers, etc. to rebuild the shattered economy - is just one more nail in the Zanu PF coffin!
