A family home in Buhera District in Manicaland Province, eastern Zimbabwe. Photo: Bernard Chiguvare
Mthere are South Africans who wonder why so many Zimbabweans come to live in their country, and wonder why we don’t just go back to our homeland.
This is my story — about a rural guesthouse in Zimbabwe that I felt compelled to leave. I want to go back and spend the rest of my life there, but it’s not easy.
From the early 1960s, I lived in Buhera District in Manicaland Province. I have a deep bond with this place, even though the soil is too poor for farming.
In 1987 I got married. My uncle gave me three acres to build a house. I earned a salary that allowed me to immediately build a three-room house and also a small rondavel. Although I want to build a better house, I have limited resources.
We grow beans and corn for our own consumption.
Then, around 1998, I became an employee of the Zimbabwe Public Service Commission in the household affairs department, and my family moved to Harare, because I was working there. Then, I was transferred to Masvingo District.
During these years, I worked to take care of the house and the animals. I make sure that every family vacation we go back to the countryside.
In 2006, during Zimbabwe’s economic crisis, four of my six children went to boarding school. My salary is small when converted to South African rand or US dollars. I can’t even afford accommodation. My resources are so tight that I have to let go of the man who guards my house in the countryside. I still used to visit, but I saw that this house was broken into and destroyed.
It’s a difficult situation. Should I leave my home to be destroyed so I can focus on my children’s education? I decided this was the best I could do, and I had to leave the country house.
But soon, if I don’t make a plan by the end of 2006, my children will have to stop going to school.
I got advice from a friend, a teacher, who used to buy shoes from the Bata Shoe Company in Zimbabwe to sell in South Africa. I tried to join him but it didn’t work for me.
In 2007, I have seen that some of my friends went to South Africa. My husband also went to Cape Town and sold various items such as brooms.
I asked myself, “Should I also leave Zimbabwe for South Africa?” I have worked for nine years in the department. What jobs can I find in South Africa? I just don’t understand. My salary was worthless, so I left my job. In March 2007 I went to South Africa.
But always in the back of my mind is the countryside and my native home, where I want to retire one day. I love the place – the environment and the biodiversity. There is enough space for gardening and some agriculture. I used to keep 10 cows, but three were stolen and the rest had to be sold.
In 2010 my house was destroyed. I don’t know who did it, but they not only stole everything – our clothes, the three-piece lounge suite, the kitchen equipment – they also made off with window frames, panels and doors. It’s sad, but I have to stay strong, focus on my children’s education.
I finally found the man who was guarding the place again, but when he went to visit his family during the Christmas holidays, he never came back. I have been told he is looking for work in a mine about 60km east of my house. No one stayed home.
In November last year, I returned to find that the roof of the rondavel and the house had caved in. But I have started renovating the place and I plan to extend it.
In 2009, the South African government introduced the Zimbabwe Permit Dispensation, which became the Zimbabwe Special Permit (ZSP) in 2014 and the Zimbabwe Exemption Permit (ZEP) in 2017. It was later announced that the ZEP will expire in June this year.
All these years I have been able to support my family by working legally in South Africa. If ZEP ends, I will have to go back to Zimbabwe and live in my house.
I love my home and want to stay there, but right now I’m not sure how to manage my finances.
This article was first published on GroundUp.