No War in Zimbabwe: An account of the exodus of a nation’s people
Report Cover Photo: Razor wire on the border between Zimbabwe and South Africa
Zimbabweans are now the second biggest group of foreign Africans in South Africa. Yet there is little formal information available on their situation. Very few are being officially recorded as political refugees. Some Zimbabweans claim that it is hard to access asylum seeker status. It was the intention of the authors to investigate these allegations, as well as to establish other problems and issues of relevance to Zimbabweans in South Africa.
South Africa needs to brace itself for ever-greater numbers of Zimbabweans unless a lasting political solution is found to the current crisis. At both government and NGO level, there is a need to devise policies to deal humanely with the influx, and particularly to provide services on the ground. For this, more information is needed.
Data for this report was collected between September 2003 and October 2004. Sources of data included: a desk study of media, human rights reports and refugee laws; more than two hundred interviews with Zimbabweans in South Africa; 7 field visits to the Johannesburg RRO; 10 field visits to places of residence; two surveys involving a further 211 Zimbabweans; interviews with key informants; 4 field visits to Musina; 3 field visits to Beitbridge.
![There are 18 government-funded, “Operation Garikai” houses in Hopley farm, Harare, where 3,800 displaced live: windows and doors have been bricked up because there are no door or window frames, and also no sewerage, water or electricity, five years after being built. [July 2010]](http://solidaritypeacetrust.org/wp-content/gallery/a-fractured-nation/image017.jpg "There are 18 government-funded, “Operation Garikai” houses in Hopley farm, Harare, where 3,800 displaced live: windows and doors have been bricked up because there are no door or window frames, and also no sewerage, water or electricity, five years after being built. [July 2010]")
![Valiant teachers at Hopley Farm, Harare, do their best to provide education in this ‘illegal school’ for around 680 of the 2,000 children here, who have no other opportunities to learn. They need a proper building, with plumbing and toilets, to register the school… [May 2010]](http://solidaritypeacetrust.org/wp-content/gallery/a-fractured-nation/image067.jpg "Valiant teachers at Hopley Farm, Harare, do their best to provide education in this ‘illegal school’ for around 680 of the 2,000 children here, who have no other opportunities to learn. They need a proper building, with plumbing and toilets, to register the school… [May 2010]")
![With her failed harvest in the background, this old lady dumped in rural Matabeleland in 2005 recounts the deaths of two children, and the burden of a daughter who has lapsed into mental illness: while barely surviving, she has no energy to move again. [May 2010]](http://solidaritypeacetrust.org/wp-content/gallery/a-fractured-nation/image083.jpg "With her failed harvest in the background, this old lady dumped in rural Matabeleland in 2005 recounts the deaths of two children, and the burden of a daughter who has lapsed into mental illness: while barely surviving, she has no energy to move again. [May 2010]")
