With Zimbabwe and its despotic leader, Dr. Robert Mugabe, still very much in the headlines, Saudi Gazette met a man from the Zimbabwean Shona tribe, who is currently working in Saudi Arabia. As his family and relatives live in Zimbabwe, he was insistent that his real name was not disclosed for fear of retribution against those remaining there. Instead, he asked to be referred to as “Farai”, the Shona expression for “Be happy” – a vote of confidence in the future of a country whose problems are growing daily. Now in his late thirties, Farai was born in a small hospital in the country. “My father was a teacher and my mother, a nurse, so it wasn't a bad childhood. We used to get most of what we wanted. The first eight to nine years of my life were before Zimbabwe's independence. For most of my primary school, I lived with my uncle and went to school in his town,” he said. He said early memories of the Mugabe regime were optimistic. “It was very hopeful for all of us, it was independence. There had been things that we (as blacks) were restricted from doing, there were places that we could not visit, education, medical insurance and other things were not available to all of us. But come independence, and the talk was free medical, free education, and so on,” he said. “But Zimbabwe was still prospering at that time as I remember the Zimbabwe dollar was stronger than the South African rand. It was almost one to one with the British pound then. Nearly everything was available in the country. You could save money, you could do most of the things that you wanted to,” Farai reminisced. Farai looks back on when things started to go wrong for Zimbabwe. “Firstly, where things started to turn around was the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the late 90s – Mugabe sent troops to help Kabila and that severely depleted our foreign currency. We could not afford to take part in that war. Secondly, soon after that, Mugabe decided to pay the independence war veterans Zim$50,000 each. After they were paid, they realised they could only do so much with that money, so they wanted land, and that is when they started pressurising Mugabe and the farm invasions started,” he said. By 2002, many professionals, including Farai, left Zimbabwe. “Most of us are working here in Saudi Arabia. My wife and children are in the UK. Things were bad and we needed to find some other place which was comfortable,” he said. The repatriated money from these Zimbabwean expatriates supports large extended families back home. “It is better to send money in small lots of $20 than a large sum because of the rapidly escalating inflation and exchange rates,” Farai said. He feels that the outside world – especially other African countries – is not doing enough to help the situation in Zimbabwe. “Everyone can see what Mugabe is doing but for some reason the SADC (South African Development Community) is mum. Right now, the ZANU-PF is at its weakest; now is the time for the world to pressurise them. South Africa and neighboring countries need to sit down with Mugabe and say, ‘Listen. This is enough. You have done your part and you know it is not going to work',” Farai said. He said the biggest problem is that people who have flourished under the Mugabe rule have prevented his ousting. He's hopeful of Barack Obama's presidency. “Mugabe will no longer be able to play the “white imperialist” card as Obama, who is a black and son of a Kenyan father, has been elected by the people,” Farai said.
