In exclusive interviews in over the weekend, workers in the hospitality industry lamented the rampant unemployment which would make it difficult for them to earn a living at home.
"I cannot come home because there are no jobs," said a waitress at a three-star hotel.
"Even then I do not have sufficient qualifications to get a good job and earn cash which I am earning here. But I want to come home because I am very homesick."
A barman in the same hotel said: "It is expensive in Zimbabwe when you convert Rands into United States dollars today. Here we stay in the hotel, we get free food and we do not have to travel at all and so our money is all put into the bank. I feel safe here and I can send some cash back to my family whom I have not seen for a long time."
Officially the country has an unemployment rate of about 80 percent, but analysts say this cannot be true because some individuals work in the "informal sector" and are not counted by the statisticians who compile the "disputed" figures.
Thousands of workers were retrenched during the period of hyperinflation, forcing forcing citizens to dash to South Africa for jobs.
It is estimated that there are up to three million Zimbabweans in South Africa doing menial jobs in restaurants, farms and the retail and domestic sectors.
"President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, must come up with a quick solution soon or we will stay here despite being labelled refugees," said the barman.
Post published in: News