Many Zimbabweans who left the country at the peak of economic and political turmoil, and settled in numerous countries, including South Africa, are now investing back home, while others are returning to their ancestral nation.
These were the views expressed by Zanu PF national spokesperson, Christopher Mutsvangwa, who was recently in South Africa for the 2025 Liberation Movements Summit hosted by the African National Congress (ANC) in Kempton Park.
The summit concluded on Monday and was hosted under the theme: “Defending the liberation gains, advancing integrated socio-economic development, strengthening solidarity for a better Africa.”
Southern African liberation movements, including the ANC, People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), Namibia’s ruling party, the South West Africa People’s Organisation (Swapo); Mozambique’s Frente de Libertação de Moçambique (Frelimo); Zanu-PF, and Tanzania’s ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) were represented at high level at the summit in Gauteng.
Mutsvangwa, in an interview with broadcaster Newzroom Afrika, was asked for his views on the prevailing political and economic situation in Zimbabwe, which has resulted in the extensive migration of Zimbabweans into South Africa, estimated in the millions, sparking tensions in South African communities.
In his response, Mutsvangwa said Zimbabweans in South Africa are seeking greener pastures, but the situation back home has significantly improved.
“It is the search for better pastures, that is natural. South Africa had the advantage of having comparative access to capital as a white apartheid state. In colonial times, capital into Africa followed white, and South Africa has the biggest white population on the African continent. All those Western countries gave South Africa a certain edge in access to capital.
“We in Zimbabwe/Rhodesia were second in terms of our white population. We also had comparatively better access to capital than any other African country, and we had migration of labour from Mozambique, Malawi, and Zambia into Zimbabwe.
The former Zimbabwean ambassador to the People’s Republic of China said people follow where they see an advantage in terms of development and capital.
“Now things have changed. We are now having capital in a flat global world where China can supply capital, India can supply capital, Riyadh can supply capital, so we now have an Africa that is going to global markets, getting capital. That discrepancy in access to capital, which was the case for the colonial era, is beginning to disappear.
“You cannot believe it, there is now a seamless environment between life in Zimbabwe and life abroad. That is why our diaspora is coming back to Zimbabwe, putting a lot of money … our diaspora feels at home, they are now beginning to invest at home. For your information, the biggest diaspora migration is white.”
He said the white Zimbabweans who had fled the country at the onset of majority rule in 1980 make up a good number of the people moving back into the landlocked Southern African nation ruled by President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
“So the return of the white diaspora back to Zimbabwe is actually an indication that things are getting better in Zimbabwe. Remember we are operating the hardest currency in the world, the US dollar, and if you can make your economy succeed on the back of the US dollar, it means you are doing very well as a country,” said the War Veterans Association chairperson.
Speaking to IOL, Dr Alexander Rusero, head of the department of international relations and diplomacy at the Africa University situated in Mutare, Zimbabwe, said the landlocked country seemingly has its worst times behind it – economically and politically.
“I think in all fairness, Zimbabwe has had its bad tide and we are definitely past that in as much as the mess we were once in as a country is concerned. That explains why you hear an opposition voice. We are as good as not having an opposition in Zimbabwe, and if you want to look at Zimbabwe’s dynamics currently, just look at the balance of forces within Zanu-PF. IOL
