Hope, relief for Zim Indians

INDIANS in Zimbabwe, conservative by nature and politically neutral, were overjoyed with the changing of the old guard at the State House when ageing head of state Robert Mugabe finally threw in the towel last week.

Now, Africa’s one-time breadbasket is on the cusp of a phenomenal socio-economic and political resurgence.

A new wave of revolutionary zeal and patriotism is spreading to lift the crippled nation from its knees.

Despite the hardships and uncertainty many Zimbabweans faced in the past two decades, Indians say they will be central in the reconstruction and development of the country, which they have hailed as beautiful, crime-free with the Victoria Falls as the crown jewel of tourism.

Said to be a resourceful and resilient community, Indians too had to bear the brunt of Mugabe’s iron-fisted rule of land grabs, attacks on white farmers, internecine and factional wars, nepotism, fraud, corruption and perennial shortages of goods from food to petroleum during Zanu-PF’s 37-year reign.

Last Tuesday, they witnessed how lawmakers rallied their MPs and lobbied opposition politicians.

Many of them also took to social media and switched on to CNN, BBC World and SkyNews to grab the latest headlines and news breaks – many hoping and praying Mugabe would go quietly.

They tweeted and sent screenshots to Indians around the world.

Businessman Pradeep Varyani, an industrialist in the printing and publishing sector in Harare, said he would not forget the historic date, November 21, 2017.

The political drama, followed by the resignation of Mugabe, fell right on his wedding anniversary.

However, he and his wife, Jyoti, who married in India in 1981, put their celebration on the back-burner and sat glued to the international TV stations – waiting anxiously for any “breaking news”.

Relieved with the new political development, he told

“We are not going anywhere. We have experienced tough times, but we share the nationwide hope for a brighter future for Zimbabwe.”

Indians have been integral to the economy and cultural and social cohesion since independence in 1980, following a British-supervised cessation of one of most brutal and bloodiest guerrilla bush wars in Africa.

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India’s then-prime minister Indira Gandhi’s attendance of the ceremony, along with world leaders and British monarch Queen Elizabeth, saw a migration of Indians into the country with the opening of an embassy.

Indian presence remained strong since then with bilateral visits to each country.

In 1986, India’s chairing of the Non-Aligned Movement conference in Harare by thenprime minister Rajiv Gandhi further attracted top level trade delegations and an Indian investor presence.

“Indian investors, business people and professionals have been in Zimbabwe since the 1990s. We have been here since 1998 and we have seen it all crumbling,” said Varyani.

“Despite the hardships and currency crisis, we had to come up with innovative ways, and fortunately we have learnt and survived in our businesses.”

The couple’s son, Bharat, is now running one of four companies and they also run other regional businesses.

They settled in Durban in 1996 before purchasing a Zimbabwean business two years later.

“Then we saw a good future, but things slowly deteriorated to the recent status quo,” he said.

“Zimbabwe began sliding into chaos with currency problems. Political decisions made were not proactive and this carried on until 2007.

“We learnt new innovative ways to survive in that the atmosphere was not all legal, but we supported the country’s need for our paper and packaging products.

“The country had potential… people were very resilient,

Thousands of Indians dug their heels deep and focused on surviving and keeping their business and socio-cultural life alight over the past 20 years and are now relieved with the new winds of change sweeping through Zimbabwe following the departure from power of struggle stalwart-turned-dictator Robert Mugabe, writes MARLAN PADAYACHEE