Reality check time for Zimbabwe diasporans

The villagers at Chisheche Township near Gutu Mission can now afford to sit around bar counters and watch TV together while drowning their sorrows in the famous brown bottles of lager


It is no exaggeration that many displaced Zimbabweans of the past two decades will need shock therapy when eventually they decide to return to their home country.

There is incongruence between the hopes and aspirations of the diasporans and those that remained and bore the wrath of Zanu PF impunity that the displaced must come to terms with.

Zimbabwe today is a totally different country from what it was in January this year going back to 2000.

This reality is lost to most of the diasporans whose expectations have been pegged way above what can be achieved by the coalition government.

No wonder there are reverberating echoes of discontent from writings of those in the diaspora.


The diasporans expected the entry of the MDC into government to yield positive and fundamental changes to the manner in which the government operates in specific areas that caused them to gap it which have not materialized.

On the contrary the people who remained in the country had high expectations that the entry of the MDC into the coalition would halt the plummeting living conditions they were subjected to and they have not been disappointed.

Zimbabwe diasporans left the country to seek refuge against economic hardships and political vandalism they were subjected to by a ruthless Zanu PF regime and they found immediate comfort for both wherever they settled and much more.

The plummeting economic conditions in the country placed diasporans at such an economic advantage over their remaining counterparts in that the forex remittances they were making fetched astronomical monetary value from a Zimbabwe currency in free fall.

They could afford to buy properties that they would never imagine owning in a lifetime working in Zimbabwe.

Due to hyperinflation a mortgage loan on any property within Zimbabwe would reduce to a Diasporan’s quarter monthly income within a period of 18 to 24 months and many who had a vision to return back to their home country whenever the political situation improved exploited that window and invested heavily in lavish properties.

The problem many faced was finding reliable relatives to identify the opportunities and manage the investments and many lost vast sums they intended to be invested for their future comfort on returning to their home country.

Even the reputed financial institutions in the country were no longer reliable to manage the remittances of diasporans and they misappropriated the funds to fund Zanu PF’s political lifeline at the expense of the very people the party had haunted out of the country.

Despite these investments many diasporans are still reluctant to return to their home country notwithstanding the political developments that have ushered the coalition government and by and large halted the economic morass by the multicurrency use intervention.

Increasingly the diasporans who had become used to remitting less than a tenth of their incomes to sustain the economic needs for entire Clans’ of relatives in the country are finding it increasingly difficult to sustain the lifestyles they had become reputed for sustaining by relatives.

The arrest on inflation by the coalition government that they now have to meet the same obligations they had taken on with real currencies and that is not easy for them to manage.

While the economic stabilization has brought relief and hope within the country it has brought misery and increased diasporans’ financial obligations to a point where they now have to trim down their beneficiaries in Zimbabwe to the closest family and risk alienating that nucleus family unit from the Clan that used to benefit from it.

But for diasporans the most disappointing development or non development in the country is to do with the rule of law.

There are too many reports of Zanu PF aligned officials and committing serious crimes against perceived or real MDC-T officials and supporters alike.

The diasporans blame continued impunity on the MDC because they had hoped that its entry into government would translate into an immediate stop of Zanu PF impunity.

The commercial farmers are still being evicted by continued invasions and Court actions ironically by a government supposedly headed by the MDC Prime Minister and deputies and they do not understand why that should be tolerated.

MDC-T Ministers, MP’s and activists are still being abducted by state security agents, detained without charge, tortured, denied opportunities to enjoy bail conditions whenever the courts intervene and grant them bail and then acquitted when they are eventually brought to trial over alleged offences for which they were violated in this manner.

Diasporans do not take kindly to the MDC co Home Affairs Minister and the MDC Prime Ministered government allowing itself to be compromised by being made accessories to the prosecution and persecution its core supporters and seemingly doing nothing to distance itself from the abhorrent actions than claim that the union is working well only to announce partial disengagements and re-engagements all in one breath.

For diasporans the MDC-T in particular appears to have been compromised by its involvement in the coalition government to a point where it has completely lost its head.

They argue that the policy shift and inconsistencies in the party behaviour are indicative of the party’s lack of vision and a workable alternative way of democratizing the country’s governance.

On the contrary Zimbabweans within the country are resolutely behind the same party diasporans view as having sold out to Zanu PF and are urging the MDC-T leadership to hang in the coalition government and slug it out with Zanu PF despite the negatives all appreciate are in place and working against the party.

The reason is not difficult to see as they are weighing the benefits they have derived against the deprivations that are resulting from the resistance in the coalition government and finding them to outweigh the deprivations.

The opposite is exactly true for diasporans whose disadvantages far outweigh benefits derived from the coalition government.

The problem the diasporans face in attempting to address the unpalatable aspects of the coalition government is that they are not well organized and courageous enough to confront the system head on.

Their only hope was to do so through MDC-T which for all intends and purposes appear to have abandoned them and are pursuing agendas the diasporans do not value and or understand.

The MDC-T on its part feels let down by diasporans who do not seem to appreciate what it is doing to consolidate the gains of its electoral victories in March 2008.

The MDC wants to resolve the plight of diasporans and its locally based grassroots via a holistic programme of action that is anchored in the positions it bargained for in the GPA.

Simply put the MDC –T is not unduly concerned with sporadic and uncoordinated criticism from exiled Zimbabweans ahead of the needs of its locally based grassroots supporters.

The belief is that if it addresses the plight of locals the diasporans will find it more lucrative to return home than stay in exile.

The party expects its sympathizers in the diaspora to lead the economic turnaround project by organizing themselves into viable investment syndicates to create employment in their home country but the diasporans many of whom have been abused into menial tasks have no clue what to do to compliment the internal efforts in their home country.

Most want the MDC-T led coalition government to create employment opportunities for them that will guarantee their incomes at the same level they are currently enjoying wherever they are which absolutely stupid.

Diasporans who want to return to their country of origin must take advantage of the low salaries and set up costs currently obtaining to start small enterprises that will create employment and generate wealth for the country rather than expect a bankrupt government creating employment opportunities for them.

Those that lack business acumen and want to be Civil servants must be prepared to drastically lower their salary expectations and use their expertise to facilitate economic turnaround in the country to realise improved incomes.