Zimbabwe needs you, or your cash

The fears of a Zimbabwean who is eager to return to his home country were best portrayed by comedian Carl Joshua Ncube in one of his acts not long ago.

He describes how he and his wife, who both recently returned home to start a business, have learnt to share a bucket of water in a way that preserves the peace in their marriage. "One splash for her, one splash for me, one splash for her …" Ncube said, to peels of knowing laughter from his audience.

It is one of many tales of woe – water shortages – that Zimbabweans at home easily joke about, but it is the kind of story that terrifies those outside the country considering a return to Zimbabwe. 

Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara acknowledges these fears, but says these can be opportunities: "Yes, there are problems and challenges in Zimbabwe – poor infrastructure, low access to financial services, food security matters, governance, low productivity and low beneficiation – but these must be seen as potential opportunities by creative entrepreneurs."

Many people are indeed taking the plunge, with private agencies being set up in Zimbabwe to help returning citizens to settle in, and large companies are actively recruiting from within the diaspora. 

But the government appears more interested in making sure that repatriated funds are channelled into state coffers. There is no official data on how much Zimbabweans send back to the country each year because most of the transfers happen informally. Bus conductors on the Johannesburg to Harare route make a pretty penny by charging a minimum of 20% in commission to send cash home.

Remittances
A report by South African nonprofit organisation People Against Suffering, Oppression and Poverty says that Zimbabweans living in South Africa repatriated $847-million in 2011.

According to central bank data, remittances into Zimbabwe through formal channels were $190-million in 2009, 142.6% higher than in 2008, and 335% more than what was recorded in 2007. A more recent Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) report puts annual remittances through "formal channels" at $138-million.

First National Bank, which recently launched a cellphone-based cash remittance service to Zimbabwe, says its research had shown that about 1.9-million Zimbabweans living and working in South Africa send home an average of R6.7-billion a year.

Another indicator came from Standard Bank, which says it handled more than R1-million in transfers to Zimbabwe since it launched a money transfer service in December.

There are also no recent official figures on how many Zimbabwean households still depend on remittances. At the height of the economic crisis, a study by the Economic and Social Research Council found that 50% of urban households in Harare and Bulawayo were dependent on migrant remittances.

But the impact of remittances appears to have weakened, according to the central bank. RBZ governor Gideon Gono says that "diaspora inflows" are one of the main sources of income for Zimbabwe, but that Zimbabwe was now increasingly seeing only "moderate remittances", owing to changes in economic realities both at home and abroad.

Exodus of professionals
Zimbabwean professionals began leaving in large numbers late in the 1990s, with the exodus speeding up after the economic crisis deepened after 2000.

According to Zimbabwe's Scientific and Industrial Research and Development Centre, by 2003, 500 000 skilled workers had left. In the same year, Zimbabwe lost 80% of the doctors, nurses, pharmacists and radiologists it had trained since 1980. According to the ministry of health, 92% of pharmacists' posts were vacant by September 2004.

In 2008 alone, the year the global economic crisis peaked, mines lost half of their critical skills base, mostly to South Africa.

However, Zimbabwe still appears undecided about what it really wants out of its diaspora; its people back, or their money.

A 2005 International Organisation for Migration survey found that 67% of exiled Zimbabweans surveyed had said they would like to return to Zimbabwe at some point in future. But the years of economic crisis since then, and the delayed reforms under the unity government, would likely have dampened the hopes many may have had of returning.  

In 2009, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai was booed off a stage by his own supporters in London after he called on them to return home.

But there are many efforts under way to reverse the trend. Websites such as comehometozim.com and motherlandzimbabwe.org on which "diasporans" register for jobs at home are increasingly popular.

On zimbabwehumancapital.org, set up by the government and the migration organisation, Zimbabweans abroad can submit applications for jobs at home. 

The website, comehometozim.com, calls out to Zimbabweans abroad: "Don't wait for ‘things to come right' in Zimbabwe. Things don't fix themselves, it takes people – that's why Zimbabwe needs you."