Thread by @dabskays

1)MY EXPERIENCE ON ZIM & DIASPORA

By April 2007, I had no intention of leaving Zim, I always said I would never leave Zim even when my cousin & friends left for UK, Canada, Australia etc. I had worked hard & acquired professional qualifications. I became a manager in 2002

2) Many of my clients at work were pvt sector CEOs, Parastatal heads, Politicians etc they ran side hustles. I was inspired, I opened my first shop in our village in Murewa end of 2001 & my second in the neighboring commercial farm in Virginia Macheke when the farmers left.

3) By 2006 I ran 10 shops in Mutoko & Macheke Resettlement areas, I had an 7 tonne lorry & a kombi, I was also growing vegetables from a plot in Kensington Bulawayo. I had been promoted to a Bulawayo branch manager for in Insurance company. I employed around 20 people.

4) In the price control blitz of 2007 I had scaled back to 4 profitable shops, I lost over R100 000 in the blitz. I resigned from my job as it no longer made sense to earn a paltry salary that kept on devaluing. I saw an advert for a top job in SA that matched my qualifications

5) I was told by the company that if only I had a permit they would consider me. I then applied for a permit at SA embassy in Harare. I got my permit and came to SA. I got employed within a week as a clerk hoping to rise. I realised that unlike Zim qualifications didn’t matter.

6) I applied for 2 years to many companies, the answer was the same :WE DON’T EMPLOY FOREIGNERS😢, I had a choice of going to Australia, Canada or Dubai, I don’t want to go through what I went through again now at my age. I will rather go back home, I am tired of being told NO

7) As a coping mechanism I would go to Zimbabwe every month. At times I would spend just 6 hours in Harare & then come back. Whenever I saw how tough life was like in Zim, I would come back to SA put my head down & work.We decided to build our house in Zim kanyokad.blogspot.com/2019/10/challe…

8)I opened a tuck shop at our Zim home & ran it for two years. I started a piggery project in Zim & also grew tobacco. My main problem was mgt of projects especially when you involve relatives with money. Even to buy pig feed or fertilizer we would travel to Zim & buy personally

9) Though it was painful not to advance in my career even though being more qualified than my SA peers, I kept my focus. I worked overtime almost every day and worked most Saturdays to raise capital. In October 2017 I resigned from my job of 10 years to concentrate on my hustles

10) I took a bus to Zim on 2 October 2017, the day I finished serving my notice. I would spend the month in Mutoko buying very cheap feed for my piggery project. I said to myself ; MY FAILURES HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH MUGABE’S RULE

kanyokad.blogspot.com/2018/09/why-i-…

11)When my piggery project started to flourish, I decided to go back to work for 6 months to raise capital for butchery equipment that was a big mistake. I was no longer traveling to Zim weekly. Over 60 well-fed pigs were sold,US$6 000 wasn’t accounted for, my SA hustle suffered

12)It was like I took one step forward & many step backwards. The next batch of 60pigs sold in October 2018, I controlled the funds from here. When I was self employed I would take a bus cheaply to Zim midweek sort things out come back. It’s about control. I have learnt a lot🙏🏿

12) My advice is that if you have a chance to leave Zim please do, it might help you as it did 4me. When I left Zim my uncle who had worked in Zambia & Zaire from 1950s told me I would miss Zim,he was right. A person who who never left Zim would not understand why I’m coming back

14)5 years ago as I sat in the call center in Pretoria being depressed, I read a blog by Norah Spie when she left UK to come back to Zim in 2008. I liked this, “Zimbabweans must know that it is okay to work hard in Zim too, what makes people think that Zim a retirement home?”