The Zimbabwe Gold (ZiG) currency regime, introduced with hopes of stabilising the economy, continues to wreak havoc across the country’s formal business landscape. In the latest blow to the retail sector, clothing and apparel giant Truworths Limited, along with its subsidiaries Topics Stores (Private) Limited and Bravette Manufacturing Company (Private) Limited, has officially exited the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE), marking a dramatic retreat from the formal economy.
The ZSE confirmed on Tuesday the voluntary delisting of Truworths, following a shareholder resolution and the company’s placement under corporate rescue. This development underscores the deepening economic crisis in Zimbabwe, particularly within the formal retail space, which has struggled to adapt to volatile exchange rates, diminishing consumer purchasing power, and a rising preference for informal markets.
Truworths’ financial woes trace back to 2024, when the company and its subsidiaries were placed under corporate rescue proceedings on August 7 in accordance with Section 122 of the Insolvency Act [Chapter 6:07]. The move was a last-ditch attempt to save the company from collapse amid increasingly difficult operating conditions. During this period, Truworths remained suspended from trading on the ZSE, as corporate rescuers worked to formulate a recovery strategy.
Under Section 126 of the same act, the company was granted a temporary moratorium against legal action by creditors, giving it room to restructure without immediate threat of litigation. Creditors convened on August 28, 2024, at the Master of the High Court’s offices in Harare to evaluate the company’s survival prospects. A formal corporate rescue plan was adopted nearly three months later, on November 20. But by then, the economic damage had already become too severe for Truworths to bounce back.
Mounting financial pressures, falling revenue, and an unforgiving economic climate rendered the rescue plan ineffective. Consumer spending had plummeted as the ZiG currency—introduced in April 2024 to replace the Zimbabwean dollar—failed to inspire confidence. Prices soared, real incomes shrank, and customers increasingly turned to the informal market, where pricing was more flexible and competitive.
At its final shareholders’ meeting held on February 25, 2025, Truworths approved the sale of the company to Valfin Investments for a nominal sum of just US$1. The deal also included the resignation of the existing board and the appointment of new directors under Valfin’s ownership. While the transfer was positioned as a potential fresh start, the delisting from the ZSE effectively signalled the end of Truworths as a public entity.
The Zimbabwe Stock Exchange confirmed that the Securities and Exchange Commission of Zimbabwe (SECZim) approved the delisting, which falls under Section 15 (d) of ZSE Listing Requirements. Consequently, Truworths shares are no longer tradeable on the exchange, leaving shareholders in limbo and raising fresh concerns about the fate of other vulnerable listed firms.
ZiG Currency Turmoil Claims More Victims as Truworths Exits Zimbabwe Stock Exchange
Truworths’ collapse is emblematic of the broader challenges facing Zimbabwe’s formal economy under the ZiG regime. When the currency was launched, authorities promised that it would bring monetary stability, control inflation, and restore faith in the local financial system. Instead, the new currency has struggled to maintain value, distorted pricing structures, and caused massive disruptions in supply chains and consumer behaviour.
Formal retailers like Truworths are particularly exposed to these dynamics. Bound by official exchange rates and required to operate within a tightly regulated financial framework, they cannot match the pricing flexibility of informal traders who operate outside of formal taxation and currency restrictions. The result has been a massive migration of consumers to informal markets, further weakening already struggling retail businesses.
Truworths now joins a growing list of companies—particularly in the clothing, retail, and manufacturing sectors—that have either downsized operations or exited the market entirely due to the hostile economic environment. Industry analysts warn that unless the government undertakes urgent reforms to restore confidence in the currency and level the playing field between formal and informal businesses, more closures are inevitable.
“The delisting of Truworths is just the tip of the iceberg,” one economic analyst noted. “If currency distortions and policy uncertainty continue, we’re likely to see a wholesale collapse of Zimbabwe’s formal retail sector.”
The situation also highlights the limitations of monetary policy in isolation. Without broader structural reforms—such as improved governance, consistent fiscal discipline, and support for local industry—analysts argue that the ZiG will continue to drag down the very sectors it was meant to revive.
For now, the exit of Truworths from the stock market serves as a grim symbol of the economic realities confronting formal businesses in Zimbabwe—realities that many fear could soon become the norm rather than the exception.
