Zimbabwe, the refugee-producing country

JOHANNESBURG - It’s a good Sunday morning. It’s still dark outside but my uncle Boniface Silo is already up and about, busy chanting Highlanders Football Club praise songs. Highlanders FC is a Zimbabwean team which has for decades united various Zimbabwean tribes.

Though we are not happy with him making noise there is nothing we can do, as he is an avid supporter of the “National team” as it affectionately known to its supporters. There is a big game that afternoon - giant teams are set to clash on a Castle Cup game at Bourborfields Stadium, the home ground of Highlanders.

If you have been to BF you would definitely agree with me that when Bosso plays Dembare at its home ground, there would be tension between the team’s supporters that would grip the city even weeks after the game. If you are not at the stadium by 10 am there are chances that you won’t get a place to sit by the time the match starts.

In almost every house, one would incessantly hear their song that goes ‘who was there when Bosso played at Emagumeni during Madinda, Mercedes and Willard’s. These were the days in the 90s when a bit of sanity prevailed in our beloved country. And it was on one such day that my uncle Silo was waking everyone up ahead of the crucial game.

Everyone would look forward to the next game of soccer with enthusiasm. Everyone knew everyone who would be at these matches. Silo would go to every match Highlanders played but this was short-lived as he soon realised there was nothing other than misery that his government could offer him. He, like may others, decided to leave not only the team they loved and lived for so much, but also their families and friends, all in a bid to find a better future.

Clutching a sack bag (renkini bag), with a handful of his old clothes he left for South Africa. Then, only people from Matabeleland would go to SA in search of greener pastures.

One by one the Zimbabweans followed his tracks either for economic reasons or for political persecution. Some had visas, some risked the crocodile-infested river as the octogenarian Robert Mugabe and his cronies continued to cripple the economy and muzzle any dissenting voices.

Today more than three million Zimbabweans are estimated to have followed my uncle’s early tracks to South Africa and elsewhere. Though there is nothing South Africa could offer to most Zimbabweans, they are still coming in droves every day of the week. An average of 1 000 Zimbabweans are deported every day and almost all of them return to SA within a day of deportation.

They say they don’t have a choice - Zimbabwe is burning and people are starving to death while the regime feasts. It’s a sad awakening that Zimbabwe, once the breadbasket of Africa, is on its knees. The inflation of 1 593.6% is not only sky rocketing but worse than Iraq, a country that has been ravaged by war. Things continue to get worse and with the government clamping down on the opposition, people need to act fast.

Though the government has further suppressed Zimbabweans by banning all political gatherings, every civic organisation and the oppositions are calling for civil unrest to force the regime into agreeing to people’s demands.
“Zimbabwe will never be the same again even if the regime relinquishes power to the opposition. It will take another 27 years to rebuild it. What with a currency that is worthy nothing and almost every one outside the country,” said my uncle Silo when I caught up with him in Johannesburg.

He admits that though life here has not been a bed of roses, he has managed to settle well in South Africa.

“Home will always be the best. Someday when I retire I would want to go back to my country and spend most of my old age there. It’s so sad though; every one I used to know is no longer there. Bulawayo is empty, people have either relocated or they have passed on due to the HIV/AIDS pandemic that has ravaged the country. Lobengula street in Bulawayo is barren, it looks like a foreign land. The smokes of Bulawayo that used to symbolise the city are no more, tears fills my eyes as I see my beloved country perish beyond repair when the regime keeps holding on to power by all means possible,” said Silo with a gloomy face.

Silo words are echoed in most parts of Johannesburg where millions of Zimbabweans have found places they call home. They live in dilapidated flats with only those who have managed to strike it big living in spacious town houses. They say their social contract has been breached without their consent, as they may never meet with their families again.

Zimbabweans today are scattered all over the world. It is estimated that more than a third of its populace is out side the country.

“I’m not making much money here but I’m thankful I’m able to send money back home every month to my family. How I wanted to stay home, build my country and protect our sovereignty but every month end my pay slip will mock me and reduce me to a pauper until I realised it wasn’t my pay slip speaking to me but the government I was loyal serving laughing at my own stupidity,” said one former soldier who wanted to be called Sibanda.

Zimbabwean soldiers and the police are some of the lowly paid employees of the government. Worse they are not allowed by the law to strike. Their salaries are less than Zd$200,000 which is far below poverty datum line. Consumer watchdogs say an average family of four would need over Zd$400 000 to survive monthly.

Most of the soldiers and police officers have since turned to crime to make ends meet. Some have deserted – major destination being South Africa. However, not all of them are lucky to escape the CIOs and others that are planted all over SA to spy on them and the situation within the Zimbabwean community here. Rumour has it that some have been taken back to Zimbabwe where they are forced to remain loyal to a government that has turned them into paupers.

“The story of South Africa and Zimbabwe in the past decade has been that of different fortunes. The fortunes of South Africa have been on the rise while those of Zimbabwe have taken a noticeable dive. While it is admitted that South Africa still faces the challenges of poverty, unemployment and high crime rates, the country’s gradual economic growth since 1994 has consolidated its position as the economic power house in the Southern African region and in Africa generally,” says Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition on the Diaspora.

It adds: “Zimbabweans have been leaving the country for other countries, particularly to South Africa. Assorted groups have different reasons for leaving Zimbabwe, ranging from professional, economic, political, to linguistic and historic factors. Skilled professionals like doctors, nurses and pharmacists leave mainly for economic reasons while journalists, teachers, and the youth leave for political reasons”.

Hilbrow, Berea and Yoeville suburbs house more than half the total population of Zimbabwe in SA. Three-quarters of the street vendors are Zimbabweans who were driven to exile by Operation Murambatsvina in 2005, which was condemned internationally for displacing over 700 000 families. The programme also destroyed their informal livelihoods with over 300 000 children dropping out of school as well as causing major disruptions to the treatment and care of thousands of people living with HIV\AIDS.

“For Zimbabweans in South Africa, life is not as good as they might have thought. They face hatred, discrimination, police harassment, and more so when the South African government denies that there is a serious crisis that demands urgent attention,” says the Solidarity Peace Trust.

It says since independence in 1980, there have been three types of migration of Zimbabweans to South Africa. The first consisted of white people who left Zimbabwe after Zanu-PF’s victory in the 1980 elections.

“The brutality of the scary Robert Mugabe, led to exodus of a significant number of whites to South Africa. The second type was of the Ndebele refugees who fled the demagogue Robert Mugabe who did not spare them as he unleashed the notorious fifth brigade ‘Gukurahundi’ to Matabeleland and Midlands provinces in 1983 to 1987.The brigade committed genocide in the above mentioned places. The final group is Zimbabweans who have left their homeland since 2000 to date as a result of economic collapse or political persecution or combination of both,” said the Solidarity Peace Trust.

Though the situation is not anywhere near conducive in South Africa, Zimbabweans continue to risk limb and bone crossing the crocodile-infested Limpopo River to seek greener pastures. But most of them have come to realise that South Africa is not as green as it looks. Zimbabwe will always mourn its lost dignity in many years to come regardless of any meaningful change that may take place in the near future.

The Mugabe era would never be erased from the minds of most Zimbabweans who saw the birth of poor millionaires. Zimbabwe has turned to a refugee-producing nation where graduates, in a country that regards education highly, have been turned to beggars.