Paul Tungwarara: The shadow enforcer and the rise of power without a mandate in Zimbabwe

In the shadowy corridors of Zimbabwean politics, power rarely announces itself openly. It seeps, whispers and consolidates long before it declares. In recent years, a particular figure has come to symbolise this drift away from formal authority towards informal enforcement.

Paul Tungwarara represents a growing phenomenon in Zimbabwean governance: the unelected political enforcer whose influence flows not from the ballot box or constitutional office, but from proximity to the centre of executive power.

This is not merely a story about one ambitious businessman. It is a cautionary tale about what happens when a ruling system grows so distrustful of its own institutions that it relies on shadows to do the work of the state.

Tungwarara’s rise has been swift and conspicuous. Once largely unknown in national politics, he now appears at rallies flanked by state security, issuing warnings to party structures and drawing ideological red lines with a confidence usually reserved for elected leaders.

At several ZANU PF gatherings, he has publicly rebuked provincial officials and cautioned party members against disloyalty, language that implies authority to reward or punish. These are not the utterances of a private citizen offering support. They are the signals of enforcement.

Yet Tungwarara holds no elected office. His power does not derive from Parliament, Cabinet or the constitution. It derives from access, namely direct access to President Emmerson Mnangagwa as his investment advisor.

Across Africa, this pattern is familiar. When regimes feel insecure, they often elevate informal actors who operate beyond institutional restraint. In Nigeria, oil era power brokers flourished outside formal ministries.

In Uganda and Kenya, presidential advisers with undefined mandates became gatekeepers to state contracts.

In South Africa during the Zuma years, party intermediaries blurred the line between political loyalty and personal enrichment. Such figures do not emerge in healthy systems. They are symptoms of institutional decay.

To understand Tungwarara’s ascent, one must examine the convergence of state patronage, opacity and political theatre. His public prominence intensified in April 2022 with the launch of the Presidential Borehole Drilling Scheme in Chitungwiza.

Marketed as a humanitarian intervention funded by foreign philanthropists, the programme was unveiled just ahead of by-elections. Thousands of boreholes were promised. Communities were shown drilling rigs. Hope was manufactured at scale.

What followed was more sobering. Parliamentary portfolio committee reports later noted significant gaps between pledged and delivered boreholes, inflated unit costs and procurement irregularities.

While responsibility was diffuse, the scheme bore the hallmarks of Zimbabwe’s long history of politicised development projects, from farm mechanisation to command agriculture, where mobilisation eclipsed accountability.

At the centre of the borehole scheme was Prevail International, Tungwarara’s company, which secured a nationwide drilling role. Soon after, in June 2022, Tungwarara was appointed Special Presidential Investment Adviser for United Arab Emirates relations.

The title carried prestige but little public clarity. There has been no published terms of reference, no parliamentary oversight mechanism and no public accounting of outcomes attributable to this role.

Such ambiguity matters. Investment facilitation is not a ceremonial function. It shapes national priorities, allocates access and signals who is trusted. When these responsibilities sit outside transparent structures, they invite abuse.

Announcements soon followed that strained credibility. A futuristic cyber city backed by Gulf investors was unveiled with great fanfare in July 2022. Senior officials attended a groundbreaking ceremony. Headlines proclaimed a digital transformation.

Today, the site remains undeveloped, another entry in the long ledger of stalled megaprojects that dot post-independence Zimbabwe, from steel revivals to diamond beneficiation dreams.

Despite this record, Tungwarara’s influence has expanded rather than contracted. His companies have been associated with hospital refurbishments, river clean-up initiatives and works linked to State House.

Several of these projects, according to public procurement notices and media investigations, were undertaken through direct awards rather than competitive tender. In a country where procurement scandals have led to ministerial dismissals and arrests, this pattern raises legitimate questions about preferential access.

Defenders argue that Tungwarara is simply efficient, stepping in where bureaucracy is slow and capacity is thin. Zimbabwe’s infrastructure deficit is real, and private initiative can indeed play a constructive role. But efficiency without accountability is not reform.

It is a shortcut to patronage. The Marange diamond fields demonstrated how opaque arrangements enrich elites while hollowing out public trust. Zimbabwe cannot afford another cycle where speed is used to justify secrecy.

More troubling than contracts, however, is Tungwarara’s political posture.

At rallies, he does not merely praise leadership. He polices loyalty. He has suggested that access to the president is mediated through approved channels, language that positions him as a gatekeeper rather than a supporter.

This is how factions are born. It is how parties fracture. ZANU PF itself has lived this history, from the Mujuru era to the G40 implosion.

There is an additional irony in Tungwarara’s personal evolution. Rooted in evangelical ministry, he once preached humility, service and moral restraint. Today, he operates comfortably within elite political spaces, accompanied by visible wealth, diplomatic privileges and security details.

Members of his former religious community have quietly expressed discomfort at this transformation. In African politics, where faith and power frequently intersect, the instrumentalisation of moral authority for political advancement often leaves congregations disillusioned and cynical.

This is not a moral trial of one man. It is a structural indictment. When unelected actors exercise coercive influence, democratic accountability erodes. Authority becomes personalised. Institutions become ornamental. The constitution envisages governance through elected representatives and accountable offices. Shadow enforcers flatten that architecture.

The responsibility does not lie with Tungwarara alone. Informal power thrives because it is tolerated and protected at the highest levels of the executive. Silence from formal authority is not neutrality. It is endorsement.

By allowing unofficial actors to discipline party structures and shape state projects, the presidency weakens its own institutions and invites future instability.

The consequences are predictable. Internal resentment within the ruling party deepens. Public trust deteriorates further. Serious investors hesitate, wary of a system where access depends on proximity rather than process. Opposition narratives gain traction, not because they are perfect, but because the ruling system appears arbitrary.

Zimbabwe’s political crisis is not only economic or electoral. It is institutional. Reversing it requires clarity about who governs, by what authority and under what scrutiny.

Power without mandate is dangerous. Power without accountability is corrosive. Zimbabweans should not accept governance by shadows. To do so is to surrender the fragile remnants of democratic order.

The question is not whether figures like Paul Tungwarara exist. It is why they are allowed to wield power unchecked. Until that question is confronted honestly, the shadows will continue to grow.

Gabriel Manyati is a Zimbabwean journalist and analyst delivering incisive commentary on politics, human interest stories, and current affairs.