As springboards from whence political goods are distributed to various publics within a given nation, State-Owned Enterprises are the vanguard for the provision of public deliverables like transport, health, energy and power, education, regulatory services, consumable retailing among others. However, in post-independence Zimbabwe, these organizations have been hogged by a specter of corporate governance malpractices. This paper traces the genesis of corporate governance practices within State-Owned Enterprises in Zimbabwe locating it within the independence era and the various policies that were adopted by the new government. The main theses are that corporate governance is rooted in instrumental policies like the Africanisation drive, the acute dearth in qualified bureaucracy at independence, state dirigisme and welfarism owing to Marxist-Leninist philosophies, and a neo-patrimonial political culture among others. Using extant literature, the article takes a multi-disciplinary garb because it draws insights from public policy and administration, political science, and international relations.