Zimbabwe's worker exodus

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Documentary, Society & Culture

4.3 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 17 August 2023

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Tens of thousands of Zimbabweans are fleeing their country, looking for work in the West, especially in the United Kingdom.

Last year Zimbabwe was the third largest source of foreign workers for the UK, behind India and Nigeria, and ahead of the Philippines and Pakistan, which have much larger populations.

A popular social media post reads: “the Zimbabwean dream is to leave Zimbabwe.”

Many of those leaving their country are highly qualified. They’re taking jobs in the British care sector, where there is a huge shortage of workers. They send much of what they earn back to their families in Zimbabwe. For those back home it’s often the only way to survive in a country with hyper-inflation.

Zimbabwe is about to go to the polls but few expect things to change. The economy is in dire straits and the opposition hasn’t been allowed to campaign freely. Some activists have been imprisoned or even killed. The ruling ZANU PF party, which has been in power since independence in 1980, shows little sign of losing control.

Earlier this year the UK gave Zimbabwean teachers “Qualified Teacher” status, allowing them to work long-term in the UK. Zimbabwean parents fear their children’s teachers will be the next to leave.

Zimbabwe’s latest skills exodus could break the country’s healthcare and education systems, which are already crumbling after decades of under-investment and corruption. For Assignment, Charlotte Ashton hears from Zimbabweans who’ve left, Zimbabweans who want to leave and Zimbabweans who say they can only dream of leaving.

Presenter: Charlotte Ashton Producer: John Murphy

(Image: A well-used five US dollar note in Zimbabwe. Credit: KB Mpofu)

Transcript

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0:00.0	I was working in a coffee shop in Boston to help pay rent while I was training for the trials
0:05.2	and so people kept joking and they were like oh yeah she just took a two-hour coffee break
0:08.6	and went and ran the Olympic trials bare at that. On the podium is back with more Olympians
0:14.2	and Paralympians sharing their journeys to the top. On the podium from the BBC World Service,
0:19.6	listen now wherever you get your BBC podcasts.
0:22.5	This is Paralympian. Okay so I should just hide my microphones to get through the gate.
0:40.5	Let me explain. The Symbalboyian government didn't give me permission to report.
0:45.4	I wasn't alone. Foreign journalists from other news organisations have had their applications
0:50.7	denied or delayed. With elections later this month, the ruling party, Sarnu P.F.,
0:57.2	which has been in power since independence more than 40 years ago, has been clamping down.
1:02.7	Opposition campaign events have been cancelled. Activists have been locked up.
1:07.9	People here are worried about speaking up, so for their safety, everyone in this program will
1:13.7	have their names changed, including our driver who will call Dixon, who's taking us on a tour
1:20.0	of the capital, Harari. And this is the accident and emergency department. Have you been in there
1:26.0	recently? I don't generally. What was it like? Well, I think it doesn't have code.
1:34.2	Welcome to the documentary on the BBC World Service. I'm Charlotte Ashton and in this week's
1:39.3	assignment, I'm looking at the mass exodus of workers from Symbalboy, escaping crumbling public
1:45.4	services and an economy on its knees. Do they always have the right, drugs and equipment?
1:52.8	No. No.
1:57.3	A long bumpy road, a few blocks from the hospital, is a street famous for its financial transactions.
2:05.6	That's the street where money changes are from this corner. On here, okay.
2:10.6	Oh, these guys, they're buying and selling. Yeah. So they're buying people's Zimbabwe dollars.
	...

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