Financial Gazette (Harare)
Stanley Kwenda
16 May 2008
Harare — WALKING past Harare's busy Roadport cross-border bus terminus, one cannot miss the fact that a huge number of people are leaving Zimbabwe for neighbouring countries, particularly South Africa.
It is clearly noticeable from the expressions on the people's faces that they are determined to escape the worsening political and economic crisis. On this particular Sunday morning, Sesedzai Chiragwi is battling to find a seat on a South African bound bus. "All the buses are fully booked. They are saying the next bus will only be available on Tuesday," said Chiragwi, unable to hide her exasperation.
She attributes the heavy bookings partly to the long holiday in South Africa on the weekend of May 1, but it was evident that the number of people itching to leave the country has increased, as one official at the terminus confirmed. Even an enquiry at the desk of the luxury Greyhound bus service failed to produce favourable results.
The Roadport official says on average, more than 15 buses leave Zimbabwe for South Africa daily with a few more headed for Bostwana, Namibia, Mozambique and Zambia. In addition, new bus companies are opening up routes to South Africa.
Zimbabweans are leaving the country in droves in a desperate bid to escape the worsening economic situation, characterised by an inflation rate of 165 000 percent, unemployment rate of over 80 percent and widespread shortages of food, fuel and other essentials, including cash. Chiragwi, a trained nurse who has worked in Zimbabwe for the past five years says she has lost all hope that the country will one day return to normal.
After delaying her journey by some months while raising the cash needed to get a visa to South Africa, she had hoped like many other Zimbabweans, that the March 29 elections would finally bring change.
But she is as disappointed by the on-going political bickering as the rest of her compatriots.
"I am disappointed that after voting, nothing has changed, so I have decided to try my luck in South Africa," Chiragwi said.
Millions of Zimbabweans are believed to have left the country since 2000, when the economic malaise set in after the government introduced the controversial and often violent land reform programme, which drove out most of the country's productive white farmers.
The move led to a drastic decline in agricultural production estimated at 70 percent, which is now manifesting itself through severe food shortages experienced countrywide. The large numbers of Zimbabweans crossing over into neighbouring countries have caused an upsurge in fatal xenophobic clashes between locals and foreigners.
In South Africa, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has recorded an increase in the number of attacks against foreign nationals. In March, a crowd of township dwellers in Pretoria, chanting slogans, burned down shacks occupied by migrants, killing two people. The crowd embarked on an assaulting and burning spree that left at least 1,000 people homeless.
The South African Human Rights Commission says xenophobia is a problem in the country and rising numbers of refugees can only exacerbate it. Recently, a mob attacked a group of immigrants with stones, whips and guns in Alexandra township outside Johannesburg this week, killing two people and injuring about 40, police said.
Twelve people were arrested in connection with the violence in which police said was motivated by a belief that illegal immigrants were responsible for a series of robberies.
The rampage rekindled fears that xenophobia was rising in a country known as one of the most welcoming to immigrants and asylum seekers, especially from Africa.
Some of those who were attacked were Zimbabweans, the largest immigrant group in South Africa who are often accused by residents of contributing to the country's high crime rate. In Mozambique there have been calls for the closure of the border to limit the number of Zimbabweans streaming into the country but authorities in that country have ignored these pleas.
The Mozambican immigration department estimates that an average of 400 Zimbabweans pass across the border daily. These figures are said to have risen after the March 29 elections in Zimbabwe.
In South Africa, which is the most favoured destination for many weary Zimbabweans, immigration authorities are said to have slowed down the pace at which they work as a way to limit the numbers entering the country everyday.
The Botswana government was last week reported to have opened a refugee centre in Francistown to accommodate Zimbabweans fleeing the political violence that has engulfed the country in the aftermath of the March 29 polls.
Meanwhile, a Methodist church in South Africa's commercial city of Johannesburg is the most likely first port of call for many of these Zimbabwean refugees. Here new arrivals compete for space in a packed church hall until they get part-time jobs.
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