SA's R,5-billion Backhander to Zimbabwe

 Story accredited to www.mi5.co.za

Zimbabwean ‘refugees’ in South Africa are repatriating some US$1-billion (R8,5-billion) annually back home contributing around 10 percent of the National Gross Product of that country.  In the 18 years since the ANC government relaxed restrictions on the country’s borders more than 3-million Zimbabweans have fled Mugabe’s oppressive regime.

The Mbeki-led policy makers early in this development, cleverly averted world opinion against helping the roundly condemned Mugabe and his cohorts by giving the ‘refugees’ some status as well as the opportunity of earning money to remit to Zimbabwe.

The result of this policy is that South Africa now contributes massively to the Zimbabwean economy especially when these figures are added to loans and unpaid debts.  It has also contributed considerably to unemployment in South Africa as the Zimbabweans will often work for lower wages in return for being kept below the radar.  Sporadic outbreaks of ‘xenophobia’ – a term coined by Government spin doctors to disguise the root of the matter.

The policy of allowing refugees to play this role in economics is growing globally with similar situations between Costa Rica and Nicaragua, or Thailand and Myanmar.

An estimated 3-million Myanmar refugees have fled their oppressive regime to work and live in Thailand and are called migrant workers.

However the authorities in both Myanmar and Thailand have been reluctant to address the status quo despite huge efforts by humanitarian organisations around the world in part, because both countries benefit considerably. 

It is calculated that nearly US$500-million is repatriated to Myanmar each month while Thailand pockets a one-off similar amount taken from refugees who are forced to register for workmen’s compensation and medical facilities – not always forthcoming because of tardy bureaucracy.  The State also benefits from access to cheap labour.

The situation in South Africa and Thailand will take decades to change.  In the meantime, while there are direct benefits for Thailand, the South African Government can make no such claim.  Instead increasing numbers of ‘refugees’ from all parts of Africa will continue to contribute to an economic drain and shorten the process leading to a conflagration between themselves and South Africans who rightly believe they are being short-changed by their Government.

The irony lies in the ‘back-hander’ Mugabe receives from a country supposedly an African continent leader in human rights and a government that professes to espouse transparency and concern for its labour fource.

Ref: http://www.passop.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Strangling-the-lifeline-PASSOP-Report-on-Remittances-to-Zimbabwe.pdf