Well said and true. We've even discussed some of these issues before on this site, particularly explaining why there isnt much on the startup landscape and justifying the use of and building upon opensource tools. Money(start up capital) is important is to sustain you whilst you build your product.
If we assume it takes a year to build something, in the mean time what are you living on(personal expenses)? How will you pay for start-up expenses(internet, calls, transport-if client facing,good computer(s), development time-lost revenue)...etc
Collectively bills, resources, livelihood, responsibilities and expenses are where capital is required. It may be more difficult in Zim but the challenges are similar for any environment, just a different list.
For us, some of the most restrictive things we have discussed are lack of property for you to have a business bank account to then trade, relatively expensive hosting(for web-related projects), most of the stuff you said regarding extended responsibilities and financial security.
Best solution would be working really, really hard on your job(if you have one) and your project after hours.