via 93,000 South Africans living in Zimbabwe – New Zimbabwe 23/04/2015
AT a time when hundreds of migrants are fleeing xenophobic violence in South Africa, a report by the Zimbabwean government agency has revealed that South Africans constitute the largest number of all migrants living and working in Zimbabwe.
Releasing its 2014 Labour Force and Child Labour Survey (LFCLS) report results this week, the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (Zimstat) said among the 207,130 migrants in Zimbabwe, 45% (93,208) are South Africans.
Zimstat is the country’s main source of official statistics and is mandated by government to play a co-ordination and supervisory role within the national statistical system.
It also has the authority to certify and designate any statistics produced in the country as official.
Over 400 Zimbabwe migrants have so far been repatriated from South Africa following xenophobic violence against foreign nationals.
These returning Zimbabweans are among more than 2 000 foreign nationals reported to have been staying in the Phoenix camp in Durban.
“The largest numbers of migrants are from neighbouring countries.
“South Africa contributed 45% of migrants, followed by Mozambique and Malawi with about 22% and 15% respectively,” the report says.
Other migrants are from Botswana (3.9%), Zambia (7.8%), other African countries (2.8%), United Kingdom (0.6%), other European countries (0.7%), American countries (0.2%) and Asian (0.2%), while the remaining 1.4% cannot be accounted for.
The report added that “out of all migrants in Zimbabwe, 82% were unskilled, 7% semi-skilled while the remaining 6% were professionals”.
The majority of the migrants were employed in the agricultural, forestry and fishery sectors.
At least seven people have been killed in South Africa and many left homeless since the attacks started about three weeks ago.
Over 300 people have also been arrested and the South African government has deployed the army to xenophobic hotspots in Johannesburg and Durban.
On Wednesday, church umbrella body Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe (EFZ) urged Zimbabwe’s government to take urgent political and economic measures to avoid an influx of its citizens to South Africa, where they face humiliation.
Over one million Zimbabweans live in South Africa, making them the biggest community of foreign nationals in the country. Hundreds of Malawians and Mozambicans have also returned home after the attacks.
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