Restore a little life in Zim

Tasmin was weeping over the basin as she scrubbed around the taps. She was doing her weekly clean in my house. What could I do? I didn’t know how to save her from this pain. I put my arms around her and said I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry.

I haven’t spoken to her about what is happening in Ukraine.  Tasmin is engaged in her own war here, in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. It’s the war against foreign nationals, a war that is tearing into her small family and breaking it apart. It’s a murderous war that carries on, in my town, my province, my country, and yet it happens below my radar. It’s a war that I hardly feel or see in my peaceful existence.

Tasmin, a Zimbabwean, lives in a rented room in the township with her husband and two daughters Chipo*, aged 7 and Danai^*, 13. Xenophobic threats are rumbling. Operation Dudula (“repel”) is in the news. Foreigners, whether they are informal traders, drug lords, pimps, small shop-owners, truck drivers, gardeners, or domestic workers are lumped together as one entity, and Operation Dudula intends to get rid of them. Tasmin has already received one message from Danai’s school in the CBD: “Come and fetch your children early. We have heard there are going to be protests”. In the township, a stranger walking past made the sign of slitting a throat, saying “This is what they are doing to people like you.”

“My husband is very dark,” says Tasmin, “so they can see he is a foreigner. They can even see from the covo (kale plants) that we grow in the garden. When there are protests they come straight for us.” She and her family remained locked inside for week during the looting of July 2021, too terrified to be seen.

Tasmin and Farai^*, her husband, have decided it is too dangerous to keep their daughters in South Africa and want to send them back to Zimbabwe to stay with granny. This in spite of the food shortages there, and long gaps between visits.  “My children are everything to me”, says Tasmin, “I have no other family.” The couple are selling all their possessions to scrape together enough for bus fares for Chipo and Danai. Tasmin and Farai just get by on their wages from gardening and domestic work. It could be years before they have enough money to see the girls again, and they are growing up.

The economy in Zimbabwe is worse than ever, there are no jobs. “I have to stay here,” says Tasmin, “I cannot go and sit at home and starve”.  And now they will also have to send money back to Zimbabwe for food.

But Tasmin and Farai have a plan, that could enable them to go back to Zimbabwe and live together, safely as a family. If Farai can buy a boat, he could start a business in Kariba, selling fish to hotels and lodges. It’s what his father used to do.  They have been looking on Facebook. “If we can just buy the motor here, we can ship it home and buy a boat in Kariba.” Tasmin has seen a good second-hand outboard motor for R15 000. It will cost R1000 to send the motor to Kariba from Pietermaritzburg and about R5000 to buy a boat in Kariba.

Can you help re-settle and re-unite this little family back in Zimbabwe where they belong? They do not want to be foreign nationals; they do not want to be in South Africa, threatened and hated by the local population. All they want is a sustainable livelihood, a way for their two little girls to go to school, grow up and perhaps contribute to rebuilding the economy of Zimbabwe.

Can you give anything to make a difference to one family’s life? R10, R20, R50…. or more will help. If you are outside South Africa, it may be the cost of a cup of coffee or two. Or can you donate or sell a boat? Or a 25-30 HP outboard motor in good working order?

The goal is R21 705