Some Zimbabweans who returned home after working and studying for years in South Africa are battling to rebuild their lives, Daily Maverick reported.
Most were forced to return after the South African government’s decision to scrap the Zimbabwe Exemption Permit (ZEP) facility.
Returnees who spoke to the Daily Maverick said their lives were in South Africa. Tapiwa Munda is cited as saying:
It is painful to leave a place you have heavily invested in, and to be forced back into a country you fled because of corruption, dictatorship and an economy that is regressing.
Munda worked in Yeoville selling fresh flowers. He now sells second-hand bags, joining the informal traders who line the dusty road that leads to the Bindura terminus in Harare.
He said business picks up during the tobacco and cotton trading season when the farmers come to town to do some shopping.
Munodei Machingura worked for a decade as a domestic worker in East London. She is now an informal foreign currency dealer at the Roadport bus terminus in Harare.
She said police often arrest money dealers and confiscate their holdings. She wishes the government would regularise the trade for informal dealers like herself.
She said she misses South Africa’s free primary health care most.s
Some Zimbabweans still in South Africa, who will find themselves with no legal papers to stay in South Africa after 30 June 2023, say returning home is not a realistic option. They are playing wait-and-see, hoping they will win in the courts.