Are we really more angry at a bunch of South Africans demanding illegal immigrants leave their country than we are at our own government who caused us to leave our homeland in the first place??
That is why Zimbabweans will be ruled by Zanu, kusvika jesu adzoka…..
The mentality has to change otherwise we are doomed.

SA unfortunately has woken up too late. If it has woken up at all to be honest. You see this is the end result of quiet diplomacy. All these decades of trying to play peacemaker has finally led to South Africans saying enough. Add to this the current world economic downturn and a Virus, the perfect economic storm has arrived whereby those who don’t have, are blaming those who do have, of stealing their opportunities and birth rights.
I am not too sure how one gets a birth right to a job, or a job that requires a degree or some skill? Or on the other side of the spectrum, a job that requires one to work long hours mostly doing menial jobs that are risky and low paying. Truth is, most South Africans don’t want those jobs, or aren’t qualified to do them. However, we can debate those aspects all day. Fact it, we are guests here, This country has immigration laws and regulations. If we want to stay here, we have to abide by them. Even Zimbabwe has such laws and applies them rigorously.

SA doesn’t owe us anything. Yes we may have helped them attain their indipendance in some small way, maybe hosted a few of their leaders and activists along the way. They however could easily reply they too have hosted Zimbabweans, way back during Ghukurahundi where our Ndebele citizens rather fled Zimbabwe to live in Apartheid SA where they were ironically safer. So since 1982/83 and possibly before, but my research points to that period. So lets call it even. We both don’t owe each other anything.

However, there is something else that is not always measured discussed or admitted too. Lets dive into that for a few minutes.

Zimbabwe was a thriving economy for the amount of citizens it had. We were market leaders in most agricultural produce, mining, and at times add on services. We were also a tourism hot spot, an educated workforce and weather wise near perfect. we were direct opposition to regional companies and producers.

When Mugabe and his henchmen started destroying the country, those monitoring the economic effects, especially in SA, started to notice opportunities. Now im not saying that Zim was sabotaged, no, but when your enemies fight, you normally sit back and watch with the hope they both are weakened to the point that they are no longer a threat to you.

Under Mugabes last decade or two, economic collapse in Zim was well underway. This meant local producers stopped producing, local markets crashed, local everything basically came to a stand still. Even tourism which involved nothing other than people coming into the country started running dry. Hundreds if not thousands of highly skilled Zimbabwean business people relocated elsewhere. Mostly to SA. Producers sought new economies to operate in, mostly SA. So in that time, when Capital and talent where fleeing Zimbabwe, most of it was going into SA.

SA business, which has close ties to SA government, were not blind to this development. The boost it had on local economies in SA was great. Why would a government, benefitting from a neighbourly countries poor decision making processes, want to fix them?

On top of the capital and skills acquired by SA, another opportunity arose.
Now that Zimbabwe was left with no production facilities, or the capital/skills to run them, where would the country find products? Well that is where SA Industry noticed the golden egg. Not only was SA industry producing For SA consumption, but it now had to up production to cater for their neighbours who imported nearly everything. Food shortages, mechanical spares, building products, clothes, cars, etc etc were all now imported from SA into zim. Imagine getting another 12 million customers for your products?

And now the final aspect. On top of acquiring the capital, the skills and now the markets, SA also gained another 3 million- mostly illegal- Zimbabweans seeking jobs and a living. These people, although classified as illegal, would need basic services and things that they would pay for.

They would need housing, they paid rent. They would need to eat, they bought food. They would need transport, they would pay taxis and busses. They would need airtime and data to keep in contact with loved ones back home. They would buy furniture, cars, clothes etc etc. All these items attract taxes paid to the SA government. 3 million Zimbabweans buy 1 loaf of bread a day. That’s 3million x 10 rands. R30 000 000 on bread purchases alone!!!! Do the maths.

This is why we are where we are. Our regional friends have realised what a powerhouse we could be IF we had a decent government. The same principle applies with how Africa is treated/run by the worlds powerful countries- America, UK, China,

Russia etc- it is not in their interests to have a stable, well run Africa. They don’t want things like private ownership, title deeds, working courts, strong constitutions. They want Nationalization, chaos, infighting, corruption etc etc because it is easier to loot a countries resources when the corrupt government owns all the land and the people are simply moved from one place to the next when minerals are discovered and the people cannot defend their land because they don’t have title deeds and the judiciary is captured.
So what we are expecting from SA, or anyone really, is beyond me.

No-One has any benefit from a well run Zimbabwe, EXCEPT Zimbabweans who aren’t in positions of power . So why do we expect help from them or look to them for assistance?

Don’t be angry at your hosts wanting you to now leave. Tagarisa maComrades. Be angry at those who forced you to leave your land of birth and made you come live where you are so you can provide financially for your family.

Asi kana vasingadi kutibatsira kubvisa Zanu, tinouya nevamwe 3 million vachiri kumusha, tigovatorera vakadzi nevarume, toita vana navo, toita Party yedu, tovatonga muNyika mavo…..

Brett