The Zimbabwean government’s efforts to lure back skilled labour that has left for greener pastures is doomed to failure given the skewed economic environment, which forced them to flee the country in the first place, economists have warned.
President Robert Mugabe recently appointed a six-member team headed by Public Service Commission chair Mariyawanda Nzuwah to scout for talent in the sectors most affected by the skills drain, particularly medicine, mining, engineering and education. ”We are creating a website … and the website would be explaining to Zimbabweans and other people outside that ‘come to Zimbabwe, the country is kicking and alive’,” says higher education secretary Washington Mbizvo.
”I believe the effort is doomed to failure even before they begin,” says Eric Bloch, an economic consultant and adviser to the Zimbabwean Reserve Bank. ”We can’t even keep the skilled ones we have here. How can we attract more?” he said.
According to the Zimbabwean Reserve Bank’s estimates, a quarter of Zimbabwe’s 12-million people are living outside the country. Of the three million Zimbabweans abroad, the majority left after the 2000 farm seizures that threw the economy into a tailspin. The effects of the economic meltdown continue to date: the manufacturing sector has shrunk by 75% while the economy has contracted by 40% in the past six years.
Zimbabwe’s inflation rate remains the highest in the world, enough to frighten ”both investors” and ”skilled labour wishing to relocate here”, said Bloch.
Mugabe attacked Zimbabweans living in the diaspora at the Zanu-PF annual conference in 2003. He said they were being reduced to slaves ”scrubbing the backs of elderly whites in Britain”.
Among the many professionals leaving the country are nurses, psychiatrists and radiologists. An audit to determine the devastating effect of the brain drain is now under way, as the government takes stock of the negative impact of the crisis.
The government audit team comprises officials from the ministry of foreign affairs, the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries, the Employers Confederation of Zimbabwe and the Zimbabwean Central Bank. ”We are looking for critical areas [in which skills are lacking] so that we can negotiate for scholarships for people to go and get training,” Mbizvo told a daily newspaper in Harare this week.
”We want to bring back the manpower into the country to offer expertise on a short-term basis in fields like medicine, mining, education, engineering and others,” he said. Mbizvo added that a scouting team had been dispatched to Nigeria, China and Cuba, while the government was also recalling retired lecturers to come and lecture at local universities.
”They won’t come back, they are earning foreign exchange,” Bloch told the M&G. ”They will have to earn an equivalent of that amount, with their salaries being adjusted regularly in line with inflation. If that’s not the case, then there is no incentive for them to come back,” he said.
The health sector, which has been the hardest hit by the exodus of skills, is currently being manned by a skeleton staff, with close to 70% of medical specialists having left the country. Currently, 90% of junior doctors trained by the University of Zimbabwe medical school leave the country less than four years after graduating.
”The economy has come to a halt, nobody wants to invest or work in this environment,” says Dr Christopher Musonga, an orthopedist, and University of Zimbabwe medical school lecturer. ”I don’t see any professionals coming back. I am writing recommendations every week for junior doctors that are leaving.”
Mushonga sees ”no light at the end of the tunnel” as people take into consideration other factors such as human rights violations and the absence of the rule of law before they invest or take the chance of accepting work in Zimbabwe.
Mushonga told the M&G that many doctors and nurses ”can’t afford to buy a house, a car, feed their families or save money”. He says that in his area of speciality, there are just three remaining doctors to service the whole country.
Would you return home?
”It is always an option because my family and husband are up there, but this will depend on two issues, that of governance and the economy. The inflation is quite bad and I would want to live in a stable economy and where there is good governance. Otherwise, if things become normal I would go back.”
Nina, 20s, female, insurance brokerage
”We are waiting for regime change and the return of law and order. I would want to go back to a place where my voice is heard and my vote counts for something. I don’t feel I am taken seriously as an individual. They don’t listen to us so we will continue living away from home.”
Raymond, 30s, male, chartered accountant