‘I’m not going back to Zim’
Joburg academic chooses to remain in SA for good
Robert Mugabe’s fall from grace is cold comfort for expatriate Shepherd Mpofu.
For the post-doctoral fellow and researcher at the University of Johannesburg (UJ), who left his childhood home in Matebeleland in 2006 to settle in Johannesburg, Emmerson Mnangagwa’s swearing in as president will not change the dire situation in Zimbabwe.
Mpofu’s extended family has scattered over the years between SA, Zambia and the UK to escape the economic hardships in Zimbabwe. “Some of us grew up in Zimbabwe from the beginning of independence knowing that it was only a flag independence, not meant for justice and development of our region. The idea of a new Zimbabwe that Mnangagwa brings is celebrated by those you might call the children of Zanu-PF,” he said.
Mpofu’s mother and younger brother Bruce left for Johannesburg in 2000. Two of his uncles later followed. The 37-year old, who is now married to a South African engineer and has two young children, rarely visits Zimbabwe.
Instead, he chooses to send remittances to his relatives to what he describes as a “crumbling economy”. The family only meets at funerals these days.
One of his painful childhood memories was seeing his uncles being forced by soldiers to beat their elders with sticks in order to reveal the whereabouts of “dissidents” – former Zipra soldiers who deserted the Zimbabwean army – during the Gukurahundi massacres in the 1980s.
“The president who is being celebrated now oversaw that part of Zimbabwe’s history. That’s why some of us are not sold on the idea of a new Zimbabwe.”
Mpofu said he was staying put in South Africa, his home now for 11 years.