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Zimbabwe's hungry head for South Africa
Mail & Guardian (SA)
March 26, 2007

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=303026&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__africa/

It's lunchtime at Patel's supermarket in this border town and a steady stream of Zimbabweans are stocking up on supplies for a country in crisis.

One of the last shops before South Africa's border with its northern neighbour, Patel's once did a roaring trade selling everything from tomato sauce to pyjamas for Zimbabweans hit by food shortages and hyper-inflation at home.

But as Zimbabwe, once one of Africa's most prosperous countries, slides deeper into economic meltdown, most of the shop floor is now packed with two items -- soap and cooking oil.

"People can't think about luxuries like biscuits or deodorant any more," said Gilbert Dube, who runs a business shuttling essential groceries over the border and on to Harare.

"They just buy what they really need -- they have to wash and they have to cook."

With inflation topping 1 700% and unemployment at more than 80%, Zimbabwe's economy is shrinking faster than any other outside a war zone and many people struggle to pay for even the most basic foodstuffs.

Analysts say the growing crisis threatens economic stability in the region and officials say South Africa, which has maintained a policy of quiet diplomacy concerning its neighbour, is increasingly worried about the mess on its doorstep.

Widespread food shortages are pushing prices for groceries through the roof, forcing those Zimbabweans who can afford it to go shopping in Musina.

"A bottle of oil costs R14 [$1,94] here," said Beauty Hotel as she hauled two huge bags along the street to the shared taxi depot in Musina with her elderly mother.

"At home it would cost Z$45 000 and by tomorrow it will be Z$90 000 or more."

Using the official exchange rate, Z$90 000 is worth about $360, but on the more realistic black market it is about $3,75.

Hotel makes the 500km trip to Musina from her home in Kwekwe, central Zimbabwe, every month, lugging a bag stuffed with bank notes which she exchanges for a few South African coins on the black market.

Critics blame President Robert Mugabe for wrecking the economy during his 27-year rule. Mugabe blames Western countries which he says want to remove him from power because of his seizure of white-owned commercial farms for landless Africans.

Many in the former British colony survive on food parcels from relatives who have left Zimbabwe to seek work in neighbouring South Africa.

Zimbabwe-bound buses leave Johannesburg city centre daily, often carrying just a handful of people but piled high with boxes of rice, maize flour and even the odd goat.

Many of the estimated two million Zimbabweans living in South Africa also deliver monthly packages to drivers who transport the goods up to Harare and other towns in pick-up trucks.

Herbert Mabara drives from Durban and Johannesburg every few days to the town of Beitbridge, just over the Zimbabwean border.

"There is nothing in Zimbabwe. The shops are either empty or the things they sell are too expensive," he said as he tied down the teetering tower of packages in the back of his truck.

"Our people are hungry. Please take Mugabe to the UK and jail him."

Meanwhile, others are planning their escape.

Editor Mafema peers over the bridge linking Zimbabwe to South Africa, points to a gap in the barbed wire fence and plots his escape.

"I tried it last week -- over the river and through the fence. I dodged the crocodiles and police, but they arrested me at a roadblock," the 27-year-old Zimbabwean said.

"I'll keep trying until I get there. I have no choice."

"If I could just get a job that pays a few rand, it would be worth a fortune when I convert it back to Zim dollars," he said, gazing wistfully at the immigration control just metres away.

Today about two million Zimbabweans live in South Africa, according to media reports, with many more in Britain and Botswana, although no one at the immigration service could be reached to confirm the figure, despite repeated calls.

Zimbabweans jokingly call Johannesburg "Harare South", in reference to their country's capital, while London is "Harare North".

The flood of migrants into South Africa is expected to rise after brutal beatings of opposition leaders in Zimbabwe this month stoked political unrest.

Analysts say the growing crisis threatens economy stability in the region and the exodus from Zimbabwe is worrying South Africa, which has maintained a policy of quiet diplomacy concerning its neighbour.

Every night thousands like Mafema risk crocodiles and thieves to get into South Africa. They swim across the Limpopo river, scramble through holes in the fence and use their final few pennies to pay drivers for the trip to the nearest town.

Those with no money walk the 520km to Johannesburg, where the lucky ones find jobs as gardeners or construction workers.

Many are caught. Police and army trucks crammed with Zimbabweans, some of them children and all of them exhausted and crumpled after a night in the bush, rumble across the Beit Bridge border every morning.

South Africa has deported about 20 000 Zimbabweans a month this year -- almost double the monthly average in 2006 -- according to aid group International Organisation for Migration.

"The numbers have been rising every day since December with as many as 1 600 people being deported some days," IOM's chief of mission in Zimbabwe, Mohammed Abdikar, told Reuters.

Dickson Samson (24) snuck through the fence two years ago after six failed attempts, and managed to find work on a game farm not far from the border. He makes R50 ($6,92) a day -- about half as much as his South African colleagues.

"My boss says I'm not from here so why should he pay me much?" he said with a shrug. "It's tough but people are starving back home. At least I have a job."

Many from Zimbabwe's middle class have also left the country in search of work.

Even menial jobs abroad pay better than a professional salary at home and it is not uncommon to meet trained accountants peddling goods on the streets of Johannesburg.

David Kudzai (36) once worked as a senior manager on a large farm in Zimbabwe. Now he lives in the South African border town Musina and earns a living shuttling groceries across the border.

"I get more in one day doing this than I would working for two months at home," he said as he packed boxes of cooking oil into his truck. "I was a manager before. There is so much talent and education going to waste in our country." – Reuters

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