It was shocking to hear South African officials last week announcing that daily arrivals of desperate Zimbabweans had increased from about 300 daily to 500. This is despite the threats of xenophobic violence and other dangers such as human trafficking and crime, not to mention the scarcity of meaningful jobs.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) also said in a recent report that Zimbabweans topped the list of asylum seekers in the world. The British Red Cross however, pointed out that many of these asylum seekers in the UK were destitute. This is a sad state of affairs, which obviously begs for an urgent solution to the country’s political and economic crisis.
The new government should seriously consider putting incentives that will draw people back home rather than run away from it in their droves like it is the case now.
It is disheartening, for example, to learn that Zimbabwe is now facing a shortage of teachers in critical subjects such as science and mathematics and yet these professionals are subjected to menial jobs in neighbouring countries.
Although most Zimbabweans are pinning their hopes on the new constitution the gloomy part is that this exercise is shrouded in so much violence, which is going on unabated. Already some disgruntled organisations have refused to be part of the constitution making process and are campaigning for its rejection.
It is also unfortunate that this important process is happening at a time when most citizens are in flight to other countries. This goes to show that people no longer care to take part in any process in the country, no matter how important, because they have been lied to, battered and betrayed for a long time.
Their hopes for a peaceful Zimbabwe have been dashed to the extent that they do not believe in the country anymore. Their hopes have been permanently killed because they watch the same old people killing and looting the country’s resources while they struggle to make ends meet. As the US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton aptly put it last week when she said the situation in Zimbabwe “is a very sad one indeed because the ruling party, the ruling clique within that party continues to benefit from aid, benefit from the diamond trade, benefit from corruption to a very significant degree.”
This continous trek to South Africa or to any other country, is most unfortunate, because this could have been avoided had the Global Political Agreement (GPA) been fully implemented. So many people had been looking forward to come back home last year when the new government came into place and many more are still keen to return to motherland if only there is real change.
Clinton also observed that it was “extremely difficult” to change the “very sad” situation in Zimbabwe. Her country, like Zimbabweans, was banking on countries like South Africa to help Zimbabwe achieve a political solution. It is indeed high time that South Africa President and mediator to Zimbabwe Jacob Zuma and the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) speed up the process to find a lasting solution to the country. The weary Zimbabwean people now want the little dignity they still have restored back.
Post published in: Editor: Wilf Mbanga