3 Million Voices
It is now more than a year since COVID-19 hit Zimbabwe just as the rest of the world. As part of measures
to contain the virus, countries have imposed lockdowns that led to the closure of businesses.
Millions of Zimbabweans live outside the country and have migrated to seek better economic fortunes –
with the largest number estimated to be in South Africa - and these were affected when these countries
effected lockdowns.
Many were forced to return to Zimbabwe during the course of 2020 into 2021.
The International Organisation of Migration (IOM), has since estimated that between March 2020 and
March 2021, over 200,000 Zimbabweans returned home “due to the economic fallout from COVID-19 in
countries where they had been working.”
“These migrants have returned to the very communities which led them to look for a better life elsewhere
and have no livelihood opportunities to sustain their return and overall socio-economic stability,” said IOM
Chief of Mission, Mario Lito Malanca.
An IOM survey of the returnees found that, in most cases, the decision to return was linked to the impact
of the pandemic, including financial challenges, hunger and loss of accommodation, lack of access to
medical assistance, mental health support, identity document issues and the risk of assault in the country
where they were working.
The survey also found that the returnees have professional skills ranging from construction to trading,
agriculture, catering, painting, and domestic work.
In light of this, ZPP has reached out to returnees and documents some of their experiences considering
that for the majority of them, the reason they migrated in the first place, was the limited access to socioeconomic rights in Zimbabwe.
PROFILE 1
Tatenda 33, Hairdresser.
Mother of two school going children.
Was taking care of mother who is on diabetes medication.
“I returned to Zimbabwe in June 2020 from South Africa, where I had gone to try to work a year earlier. My
job in South Africa gave me enough to afford my expenses and send some groceries and medication back
home. COVID-19 brought about hardships as I was a hairdresser and when the South African government
imposed a lockdown in March, I endured two months with no income and I had no choice but to return to
my home country. After spending two weeks in quarantine, I went back home to Norton, back to the life
that I ran away from. I found myself facing my mother, who cannot do any work because she is diabetic,
and my two children. I had no source of income and they all looked up to me. I tried to start selling
tomatoes but because Zimbabwe was also under a lockdown, we were raided by the police; the business
did not thrive that much. I could not meet all the bills and we retreated back to our rural area in
Murombedzi.
My mother passed away in December.
I am still trying to set up a salon, but it is not easy because I have no finance, and the capital to start and
so far I just do basic hairstyles.
PROFILE 2: Terrence (25)
Mutasa, Manicaland.
Terrence hangs out at Hauna Growth Point, where he engages in odd jobs to feed his substance addiction.
When ZPP spoke to Terrence, his eyes seemed to be so far away as he narrated the story of his life and
while holding a bottle of some cheap gin, he spoke about his ill-fated journey to South Africa in search of
greener pastures.
“We were living a not so bad life and although I was young, I still recall how we were forced to move back
here to Hauna from Harare where my father was working.”
“He had been retrenched and when the 2005 Operation Murambatsvina came, our house was destroyed
and in the wave of things, we moved back here.”
Operation Murambatsvina, a government-driven wave of house demolitions in urban areas, left over 700
000 people hungry, homeless and without a source of income, according to the United Nations.
Families whose homes had been summarily destroyed, were either forced to go to their rural homes, or
were transported to transit camps, among them Caledonia, just outside Harare.
As a result, Terrence missed school for nearly a year before re-enrolling in Hauna, but things had already
taken a turn for the worst for his family as his father died in 2009, when he was only 13.
“I ended up dropping out of school, and it was not easy as only my mother had to fend for me,” he said,
adding that when his mother passed on he was 17, life worsened.
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