Online Reporter
ZIMBABWEANS living abroad are still Zimbabweans, and those at home and those abroad can these days, with modern technologies, maintain very close and effective contact and can collaborate on building the country.
Speaking to Zimbabweans in the Diaspora at a meeting in New York this week, President Mnangagwa made it abundantly clear that all Zimbabweans were part of the same national family, regardless of where they lived.
Many of those now in the Diaspora were excelling in universities, technology companies, banks and finance houses, international organisations and hospitals.
They were not part of a brain drain but national assets and, with modern technologies, could maintain instant contact with those in Zimbabwe and help train, mentor and collaborate without travelling.
Almost all Zimbabweans have strong family ties, and so keep in contact anyway. This will become particularly important for foreign-born children, a growing group, and these days foreign-born grandchildren. But family and community ties can be strong, and most people in any case want to know their roots, where they come from.
For many years family members outside Zimbabwe in reasonable employment or self-employment have been sending remittances home to help their families. These have paid school and university fees, helped support aged parents and others, and generally provided a lifeline for families.
The remittances were, for a long time, an essential source of foreign currency for the nation when they were eventually spent back in Zimbabwe. These are still rising in total, and President Mnangagwa noted that they now exceeded US$2,4 billion a year.
But as we continue to export more than we import, a modern development only a little more than a year old, the national accounts become less reliant on remittances, although there will be families that still need help.
This allows both those in the Diaspora and those back home to be looking at investment in Zimbabwe. That will obviously be ever more important as we see growing numbers in the foreign-born generations. But some foreign-born business person of Zimbabwean descent looking for decent investment openings has a good start back in the “old country” where there will be cousins and others to work with.
But even the direct support for families back home can, as prosperity grows in Zimbabwe and the recent switch to low inflation and high growth allows the build-up of savings, be channelled into building family businesses and other investments, rather than just seeing a monthly remittance to buy groceries. This will also strengthen the links between Zimbabweans inside and outside the country.
President Mnangagwa, and the Zimbabweans living in America whom he was addressing, were both stressing this point. Zimbabwe is pro-investment. If you are a Zimbabwean living outside the country then, regardless of what passport you use for travel, you are probably the most knowledgeable of foreign investors, as well as one who has so many leads inside the country. Our citizenship law changes under the 2013 Constitution maintain those ties. We are inclusive when it comes to deciding who is a Zimbabwean, basically once a Zimbabwean always a Zimbabwean.
President Mnangagwa has always made it a point in his foreign trips to link up with Zimbabweans living in the country he is visiting. Part of this is his stance on being inclusive, inside and outside the country, but part is to reassure those living abroad that they are real Zimbabweans, that we are proud of their achievements, and that we want to retain the ties of one large family.
Fortunately, this is reciprocated, as can be seen in those who come to the meetings with the President and are willing to speak up and engage with him and the officials, making it clear that they are proud of their heritage and want to be involved.
The President lays out suggestions, and these go far beyond sending a monthly sum to an aged parent, and quite often are not financial, but rather maintaining and building ties and helping to build an ever better country.
We now have an annual Diaspora conference, in Zimbabwe with the next one to be held in Gweru, that brings Zimbabweans living in the Diaspora back home to check on opportunities as well as being inside their own country on a visit.
We would hope the tourism industry can build on this potential as well, especially as we start seeing more Zimbabweans born outside the country and who want to move beyond an international airport to see exactly where their family came from. There are many opportunities on both sides.
