12 YEARS AS A FOREIGNER IN A DEVELOPING COUNTRY

I had always said I would never leave Zimbabwe. From 1998 to 1999 when my cousin and many of my workmates left mainly for UK, Canada and New Zealand, my first passport had not yet expired but I never considered leaving Zimbabwe. I was still optimistic of the future in Zimbabwe. In 1996 I was working as a temporary teacher and I decided to study accounting with CIMA-UK even though I had done sciences at A Level. At the end of 1997 when the Zim dollar lost its value and I could no longer raise the British Pounds required for my studies.

At the end of 1997 I joined Eagle Insurance Company in Harare, fortunately the company provided study loans. In 1998 after passing the Certificate of Proficiency then the only short-term insurance course offered by Insurance Institute of Zimbabwe, I then enrolled with Insurance Institute of South Africa. I got the loan from the company and went to Barclays Bank to get the bank draft for the South African Rands. My studies were my first priority.

After repaying the study loan installment, I didn’t have much money left😢1998 was a tough year for me as trainees we never got any salary increase because the bosses insisted that we were not yet experienced and still learning the job. I remember one Saturday when I visited a work colleague Victor Chibwe at his house in Zengeza, I really envied him as his house was well furnished. I had only bought myself a bed and a small colour TV I had bought on installment from Meikles I had send it to my mother after the first black and white tv I had first bought her had stopped working.

If you really wanted to become a manager in the Zimbabwe Insurance industry you needed to pass Associateship exams. I became a manager at the end of 2002 and completed my Associateship exams the following year. In 2005 I completed my Fellowship exams and also briefly enrolled for the 3 year MBA with Open Learning Centre in Harare. In early 2006, I joined the Society of Fellows in Harare and we had our first meeting at Harare club. In April 2006 I was transferred to Bulawayo and became the branch manager.

After Easter holidays in 2007, due to the ravaging inflation it made no sense to keep on working, I decided to resign and concentrate on my own personal business. My business included 4 general dealer shops in Virginia Macheke and Hoyuyu Resettlements in Mutoko, my 7 tonne Bedford truck and a Toyota minibus taxi. I was very unlucky because whilst I was serving my three months notice, Robert Mugabe’s government unleashed the Price Control Blitz and I lot tens of thousands of Rands. The economic situation became worse.

In July 2007, I reluctantly applied for a South African work permit. I went to the South African embassy in Harare on 22 August 2007 and I opened my passport and saw that I had been granted a 5 year permit. I would arrive in South Africa the next day and started working in the Insurance industry. I discovered that most companies did not employ foreigners. I even went for a few internal interviews I blogged about my experience on that (http://kanyokad.blogspot.com/2019/06/the-power-of-introverts.html?m=1). 

As a foreigner I got used a lot to the word NO!Within a few years I discovered that I was playing a rigged game and I stopped applying. Qualifications and experience does not count for much. When employment agents phone me, I tell them upfront to find out if they will accept foreigners as qualifications and experience don’t really matter that much in this market. Even renting an apartment as a foreigner you are required to pay double the deposit. Around 2008-2009 we once got a bargain to purchase a 3 bedroom apartment in Centurion going for R400 000, we put in our offer and it was accepted and we then applied for home loan with my bank and the answer was for foreigners we require 50% deposit.

South Africa has big challenges when it comes to transformation and the reality is the local natives are still a long way from making it even 25 years after attainment of political freedom. The way I see it us foreigners we are orphans who have been adopted by uncles and aunts where our cousins are also battling under the yoke of in-equality. We can only make it after they have also succeeded.

I still hope to go back home, I have tried to invest back home even though it does not make financial sense to put money in Zimbabwe. The main reason I have endured is the dire economic situation back in Zimbabwe. I have gone home to vote in all the elections from 2008, 2013 and 2018. As it is there is no hope in Zimbabwe and I see those who can afford to leave leaving.