ZIMBABWEANS living in South Africa say they are eager to return home to rebuild their country as soon as President Robert Mugabe is ousted.
There were no marches in Durban, but demonstrations were held in Cape Town and Johannesburg on Saturday.
Clutching their country’s flag and placards with the words, Mugabe Must Go, while chanting Mugabe Must Fall, protesters said this was the proudest they had been to be Zimbabwean.
There are millions of Zimbabweans living in South Africa, some documented and others not. Many came here to escape economic hardships that saw them unable to provide for themselves and their families.
With the hopes of a new government and the promise of free elections next year, hundreds said they were ready to return home. Ngqabutho Mabhena, general secretary of the Zimbabwe Communist Party, said a programme must be set up to rally people behind returning home to invest in their own country.
“Assuming that power changes hands (in Zimbabwe) this weekend, we still will not see people flooding home immediately because the damage done to the country will not be remedied immediately,” he said.
CAPE TOWN
Danai Musandi, 24, said going home was the wish of many Zimbabweans who did not want to be foreigners forever. “It is sending a message to the rest of the continent that you can have a coup-lite instead of a coup d’etat.
“This is how you can do it, reclaim your city and land back without violence and that is how we wanted to do it, with no bloodshed. It is the will of the people,” she said.
Should Mugabe refuse to step down, then the international community would need to intervene, she said.
“If he does not resign now it means everyone involved would be assumed to have caused treason. It is a stalemate, there is no going back. Something has to give, and it has to be Robert,” she said.
Happiness Makuwerere, who left six children in Zimbabwe to come to South Africa to earn a living, said: “We have left our families, our kids, our parents, our houses have been torn apart because of the dictatorship ruling of comrade Mugabe, and this is a special day for all Zimbabweans in South Africa.”
She said she had been in South Africa for a decade supporting her struggling family.
“We only go home once a year. Our families are like Christmas Day, you see them once a year, but all of that is about to change,” she said.
DURBAN
Alex Mkhomo, 29, said he would go home to rebuild Zimbabwe if Mugabe stepped down. Mkhomo, who owns a second-hand tyre business in Durban said: “I could not bear the pain of watching my family suffer because of one man called Mugabe. The little money I am left with, I send home after paying rent of R700.”
Diehard Zanu-PF supporter Tapiwa Mubawi, whose father was a war veteran, lashed out at Mugabe’s wife, Grace, for the political woes that beset Zimbabwe. “We do not want Grace, she has been a bad influence to Mugabe.”
JOHANNESBURG
Steven Paradza supported the army: “We are supporting the Zimbabwean national army and defence forces and the work they’re doing in order to re-liberate Zimbabwe.
“This is the first step of the future of Zimbabwe. Mugabe has to go, he has to step down.”
Paradza said there had been no coup in Zimbabwe as citi- zens were seeking economic change. “We are just changing our commander or captain of the ship. We are grateful and we are supporting our military for intervening.”
Frank Duson said people wanted Mugabe out of the country: “We want Mugabe and his family out of our government and, if possible, out of our country. General Constantino Chiwenga took a stand, and he led us into this. He started something the people of Zimbabwe failed to do. We are here to support him because we want to start a new era.
“In South Africa, they call it state capture, in Zim we call it country capture, so here we’re taking back our country.”