Online Reporter
Milton Mashasha, Matebeleland South
AS Zimbabweans and other Africans flee South Africa amid renewed anti-migrant Afrophobic attacks, a 103-year-old man from Gwanda South says the country he knew decades ago bears no resemblance to what his grandchildren are experiencing today.
Wilson “Sibalabala” Moyo of Ramonaona Village, under Headman Rantlasi and Chief Ketso Mathe, celebrated his 103rd birthday on 1 January 2026. Born in 1924, Moyo worked in South Africa from 1944 to 1955 and recalls a time of relative peace and coexistence.
Moyo left school in 1942 and crossed into South Africa two years later. He started as a general hand before training as a professional carpenter, helping to build houses in the Free State.
“By then South Africa was a peaceful place, especially where I stayed in ‘Kapa’ (Cape Town),” Moyo said. “There was little apartheid. We used the same buses and trains with white people and the Boers. They preferred first class and second class, while we blacks used the train for all — imbombela.”
He also lived and worked in Natal — now KwaZulu-Natal —, Pretoria, Johannesburg and other areas during his 11 years in the neighbouring country.
But the nonagenarian says he is pained by reports of Zimbabweans returning home destitute after being targeted in xenophobic violence.
“What we are hearing and seeing right now is painful. Our children are suffering. They are coming back home empty-handed after working in South Africa for several years,” he said.
“They are fleeing with nothing, leaving behind property they worked hard for. We need to sit down as elders, traditional leaders, government officials and other stakeholders to find a way forward. Our children should not suffer like this in search of work.”
Moyo cautioned, however, that some migrants also bear responsibility.
“I am not in disagreement that some end up forgetting to return home. You work for several years and you find you did not invest anything in South Africa or back home. Then at this stage they use xenophobia as a scapegoat when they actually had no property. I urge the young generation to plan wisely while outside the country and invest back home, because the future in a foreign land is not in your hands.”
Mr Mkhuli Ncube of Gwanda South, a victim of the recent attacks, says he lost everything after 15 years in South Africa.
“I had invested a lot,” Ncube said. “I left my property, everything. I thought I would die in the wilderness safeguarding what I worked for. How do I start again? The property I left behind was all I had. I never invested at home.”
Zimbabweans continue to return in their thousands through border posts as sporadic anti-migrant attacks flare in parts of South Africa, leaving many families in Matebeleland South and other provinces picking up the pieces.
