13 YEARS AS A FOREIGNER: I AM THANKFUL FOR EVERYONE WHO SAID NO TO ME, BECAUSE OF THEM I'M DOING IT MYSELF

I had never heard the word NO this much directed at me until I became a foreigner. The first few years it was depressing but years later, I realised it was one of the best things that ever happened to me. It changed me forever. I learnt to rely on myself and it helped me to keep focused.

On the morning of 22 August 2007, I went to the South African embassy in Harare to check on the outcome of my work permit application. It was about six weeks after I had left my passport there. I badly needed the passport as I wanted to travel outside Zimbabwe to buy stock for my general dealer shops after my business had almost been decimated during the brutal price control blitz of 2007.

At the embassy I met a colleague, Ronald Dodo-Tabaziva who had worked at Zimre Reinsurance Company. We were very happy we had been given 5 year work permits instead of 3 year permits. I had officially left my job at the end of July 2007 as the Bulawayo branch manager for Zimnat Lion Insurance company. It no longer made sense for me to continue going to work as the salary I got was almost nothing due to the ravages of inflation in Zimbabwe. From around 2001, I had started a small retail shop and by 2007 a combination of market gardening in Kensington Bulawayo, my four retail shops, my 7 tonne truck, minibus taxi and tobacco farming now paid the bills.

Armed with a work permit I thought I will be able to restart my career in the South African insurance industry and rise in my career. Having completed my Associateship exams in 2003 and my fellowship exams in 2005, I had enrolled for an MBA with a UK university before dropping off as I couldn’t raise the forex required. I thought I would get a position that suited my qualifications and experience in South Africa and enroll for MBA again.

MaNyoni and I travelled home to Bulawayo that night to collect my certificates and our clothes. We left Bulawayo early on 23 August 2007 and arrived at my sister’s place in Sunnyside late that afternoon. I went to see Gerald as I was considering even working as a waiter just as a start. I started applying for jobs online from the Internet cafes. Within a few days I was going for interviews. I was not choosy, my idea was to first get my foot in and then start looking again for a position that matched my qualifications and experience. I thought we would go back home in Zimbabwe to wind down issues after applying submitting jobs applications.

On 31 August 2007, I signed an employment offer and started work as a call center claims advisor on the 1st of September. We rented a room and we were sharing the flat with other people. Life can change dramatically, a mere two months before I had been staying in the company house in the leafy suburb of Burnside Bulawayo, driving a company allocated Toyota double cab. Now I was starting at the bottom sharing accommodation sleeping on the floor and now using minibus taxis to travel around.

Within the first month I enquired about renting our own apartments and I was told as foreigners we were required to pay double deposit. I knew there and then we needed to buy our own apartment. I was applying for jobs, I realised many big commercial insurance companies that recognized qualifications I had were not employing foreigners. If you did not have an ID number you couldn’t even register or upload your CV on their job portals. Some of them you could register on the website, when the online questions asked if you qualified for employment equity and once you wrote no, you would get an automatic rejection.

The only place where my application would be considered was with employment agents. I would fill in huge application forms, go to Internet cafes scan and e-mail the application forms. I would be told sorry they are not taking foreigners. To be fair many black South Africans struggle to make it in their own country. I kept on trying. My work permit had the following conditions; report to Home affairs offices within 90 days of entering South Africa and confirm whether I had got employed and report again every twelve months to confirm if I was still employed. My experience with home affairs needs a blog on its own.

I asked for the employment letter from our payroll department and took a taxi to the Pretoria regional home affairs office then at Pretorius Street. I was served by an abrupt official. I told him I had come to report, gave him my letter of employment and my passport. He said he actually wanted a letter to confirm that my employer had failed to get a South African to occupy the position I was in. I pointed out to him that my work permit was a quota work permit all what was required is to be employed in the sector. He refused to serve me further. I demanded to see his supervisor and it turned out he was also the supervisor.

Fortunately on the walls of the corridors of the regional office they had advertised the cellphone number of the regional manager. I phoned the regional manager and explained the situation to her. She then phoned him and explained to the supervisor that for my work permit category that letter was not required. I later discovered that many times I visited the home affairs I would have problems. If you are coming from a stable country, I don’t see why one would leave their country and come to South Africa and put up with all that nonsense. I also met a Zimbabwean guy who had qualified as a CA in Zimbabwe and had worked for Innscor as a financial controller. He had come to report that he was failing to get a job, he was staying with a friend in Midrand. He gave me a lift to our office in Centurion. In 1996 when my peers went to University of Zimbabwe to start their degrees, only straight A students were being accept into the Bachelor of Accounting degree and here was one such person failing to make it in South Africa 😳

I was not coping very well, I started traveling to Zimbabwe every month. At times I would get to Harare on Saturday afternoon and that evening I would take another bus back to Pretoria. The situation in Zimbabwe was getting worse, seeing how bad the situation was in Zimbabwe helped me to cope with the challenges I had in South Africa. It did hurt me that I had very little career prospects in South Africa as compared to 10 years earlier when I had started my insurance career in Zimbabwe. The path in Zimbabwe was clear get your insurance qualifications and work hard at work you would rise through the rank in South Africa all that didn’t count for much. Some of my qualified peers came later in 2009, they failed to get jobs, I met a qualified Zimbabwean secondary school teacher working as bread delivery truck driver in Cape Town, a Zimbabwean guy with a master’s degree waiting as a waiter in Centurion etc 😢

I knew I had to go back home. Early 2008 we had the first xenophobic attacks in South Africa my family had gone back to Zimbabwe in January 2008 I was preparing to go back home for good in a few months once I paid off my Toyota Tazz. Clement whom I was sharing a room in Sunnyside and was working as a waiter at Wimpy described how his neighbours in the township had attacked him and took away all his belongings including the money he was saving. He was fortunate he managed to outrun them. A workmate Jean who is a white Afrikaner gentleman sent me frantic message to come and stay with him in Centurion for my safety. I assured him I was safe. Many South Africans were also killed in the violence because they looked foreign.

End of March 2008, I travelled to Harare to vote, Zanu-PF lost parliamentary majority. Things were promising in Zimbabwe. I had now reopened my retail business in Zimbabwe. We voted on Saturday. On the Sunday morning I left my in-laws’ house in Chitungwiza where MaNyoni and our kids were staying. As I looked for transport back to Pretoria people were happy that Zanu-PF had lost the elections. I got to Pretoria around 9pm that Sunday and all the dozen Zimbabweans I shared the flat with wanted to know about home. I told them Zanu-PF had lost. A month later we were told that there was going to be a presidential election run off. My wife later told me the election related violence was getting worse, even in urban areas they were now being forced to attend Zanu-PF rallies. She came back to South Africa. I went back to vote in the June 2008 runoff even though Morgan Tsvangirai had withdrawn a few days before the vote after over 200 MDC supporters had been murdered, thousands more had been injured and displaced from their homes.

I kept on going to Zimbabwe, after one such visit I told MaNyoni how I envied my in laws and my cousin who were beneficiaries of land reform. My work permit was expiring in 2012 and with my experience at home affairs I doubted if it would be renewed. We started saving to build our home. Towards the end of November 2009 the day I finished writing my exams in the Accounting degree I had enrolled in that semester, I loaded four disassembled wheel barows, a tent I borrowed from my friend Evelyn Botha and other tools into my Toyota Tazz and drove to Harare.

My father in law had said I could get the steel house from my brother in law and when I enquired about the steel house it was not available. I pitched the tent at our stand in Zimre Park, Mereka slept in the car. The first heavy rains came in and I thought I was going to drown in my tent. The following morning we went to Mount Hamptden to buy the first 10 000 batch of bricks and hired a truck. I interviewed builders and explained to them I didn’t have much time. My first job in 1996-1997, I had worked also as a building teacher. I would buy a few bags of cement and carry them home with my Toyota Tazz. By the time my two weeks leave was up the 2 bedroom house was almost at roof level.

From 2008 when I realised how bad situation was in Zimbabwe, I started concentrating on earning as much salary as I could, I worked overtime. End of 2008, at work they advertised for aspiring team managers. I applied, we were asked to write a motivational letter, went for written assessments and finally a face to face interview with heads of department. I failed the face to face interview dismally. In 2009 one of the team managers resigned, I applied and went for interview. The feedback the HOD gave me was that I was not visible.

A few months later I went to see this movie, Invictus, I was inspired and I applied again when one of the team managers resigned. I went again to what I thought was going to be an interview. The only person who came was my HOD he started giving me feedback even before we had an interview, he said I was very quiet and not visible. I didn’t participate in events etc. He asked me who were my role models, I told him it was my previous two bosses Glen and Wayne who were great bosses in my view. He disagreed saying they were not, can’t I see they had now left the department for assessing. After that meeting I phoned Glen and told him what had happened. Wayne then phoned me days later.

I got the impression that his preferred people were outgoing people who stood on top of desks shouting, replying to chain e-mails. Some of the people people who made jokes or sang during monthly department meetings. Years later I worked with those people when they were demoted or when I briefly worked as an acting team manager in 2011 and I really felt sorry for them as he set them for failure and all of them eventually left the company😢Denise who is very smart a graduate from University of Pretoria with an Actuary degree one of my role models was an introvert like me, she had trained me when I joined the company and she told me that I would excel, she was right I have won the six months top performer 4 times and I have earned salaries beyond my imagination. Denise had also acted as my boss for many months. She also did not match his standards. She also left the department and later left the company.

I know there is nothing wrong with my personality, I will never pretend to be someone who I am not. I stopped applying to me it was like playing a game rigged against you or participating in Mugabe’s election at least with Mugabe you get screwed once in five years. I continued working as hard as I could to earn as much as possible and started imagining business ideas in South Africa and back home in Zimbabwe. I have built a home in Zimbabwe, invested in farming ventures and also my retail businesses. All my businesses in Zimbabwe have failed and I lost a lot of money and in the process I learnt valuable lessons. After high school I had wanted to be a chartered accountant but back then I couldn’t afford fees for the UNISA Bcompt degree. I decided to try and do something that was based on merit so I started studying for the Bcompt degree.

I wrote my first 5 modules in November 2009, took a break in 2012 because my work permit was expiring then so I concentrated on repaying my debts in case I had to go back home. My work permit was renewed for another five years and shortly after that we got permanent residence. In 2014 when I did my final year, I wrote six modules in the first semester when we are usually very busy at work. It was tough I continued working long hours. Whenever I came home too tired to study I would remember what had happened with my former HOD in 2009. I would wake-up and study. I finished my degree in 2014 and enrolled for CTA starting January 2015 before discontinuing after failing to get a position as an articled clerk. I owe that degree to my former HOD as his actions motivated me to do something else.

In 2009, we put an offer on a 3 bedroom townhouse in Centurion that was advertised on FNB quicksell website. Our offer was accepted and we proceeded to apply for homeloan at my bank FNB, the answer was sorry for foreigners we only give 50% finance. I am so grateful for that because had we got that finance we would never have sacrificed and built our home in Zimbabwe. Fortunately in 2010 Nedbank agreed to give us 90% finance for our home even though we did not bank with them🙏🏿

As humans we are meant to overcome adversity. Foreigners normally excel in the same countries were the locals complain about. Because you have so much stacked against you, any opportunity that comes your way you grab it with both hands. I knew if I lost my job chances of getting another job were very slim so each and every salary was put to good use. Being a foreigner helped me to be focused and every challenge I met along the way helped me to accomplish many things beyond my imagination. I leant that my future was within my control and for the first time I knew what I am going to do with the rest of my life🙏🏿 Also being a foreigner you don’t get too much into debt as many companies are scared of extending debt to foreigners. When you get car finance for example with 2 years left on your permit, it seems harsh that you have to repay that debt in two years. The flip side is you save on interest and you quickly own paid up assets.

When you have not much to lose it helps you to dig deeper within you. As much as I don’t like the politics in Israel, in my view because the situation they find themselves they are more likely to emerge victorious militarily, in science and technology and economically. There is nothing as strong as human spirit to overcome obstacles. If you have a chance live as a foreigner for a bit and see many things you took for granted in your home country. They say we all need friction in our lives to grow. I am very grateful for all the NO I got, it is because of that I did it myself🙏🏿

I remember in early 2017 driving from Pretoria to Beitbridge on Friday evening and not sleeping. After midnight cross the border on foot to Zimbabwe and get transport to Chivhu getting there around 10am on Saturday to buy pig feed travel to the farm to monitor the pigs, get transport to Mutoko, run about 30kms to my cousin’s place. Wake up early on Sunday morning to go to the tobacco fields. Then get transport to Harare arriving around 12midday arriving at Beitbridge around 8pm would normally leave the border around 10pm drive and sleep at the petrol stations for a few hours and kept on driving. I would be in the office by 7:30am on Monday morning as I couldn’t afford to miss Monday out busiest day and lose money. I discovered that I had so much in me in having to travel about 2300kms during a normal weekend🙏🏿