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.
“With regards to the economy, like any post-colonial African state, we still have challenges with regards to unemployment. The Zimbabwe situation at the moment there is hardly anything to write home about, especially with regards to difficulties. If we are to put that on scale – where are versus where we are coming from, I think we are performing fairly well, in as far as the Zimbabwean standard is concerned.
On the political front, Rusero said the country has seen stability after the exit of former president Robert Mugabe.
“We are actually in the most stable political climate post Mugabe, save to say it is unhealthy for a polity not to have a viable and vibrant opposition., as is currently the case. We do not have an opposition, and what happens is that protagonists in Zanu-PF will start quarrelling against each other because there is no external force which would make them unite and fight against an external threat.”
He said temperatures within Zimbabwe have normalised, which has paved the way for the country to slip from the regional and international agendas where it was perennially perched due to political violence and intolerance.
With regards to the millions of Zimbabweans based outside the country’s borders, Rusero said there is no guarantee that they will return home, as some have permanently settled in the countries they moved to.
“We are living in an era of epic human movement. It is not always the case that people migrate so that, at some point, they have to come back. We wouldn’t have had whites migrating from Europe to Africa. The whole idea is that you have to be where opportunities are thriving. The world, the global economy, is shrunk at the moment, and as much as people might have nostalgia for coming home, home is where the heart is.
“Zimbabwe is pretty much very stable, but also still has challenges with regard to opportunities, an environment that is hassle-free. In Zimbabwe, you have to hustle, but if it is between life and death, between stability and instability, you would rather be home and be stable, safe, as opposed to being away,” Rusero told IOL.
“The Zimbabwe of 2008 it is a gone Zimbabwe. The country is relatively calm, relatively free, and I think we are experiencing a modicum of some economic and political stability, which has become unusual insofar as Zimbabwe’s polity is concerned.
