Godfrey Tawodzera

Medical Xenophobia and Zimbabwean Migrant Access to Public Health Services in South Africa

Xenophobic attitudes and actions are all-pervasive in South Africa in civil society and the state. Medical xenophobia refers to the negative attitudes and practices of health professionals and employees towards migrants and refugees based purely on their identity as non-South African. This paper examines the extent to which xenophobia manifests itself within the public institutions that offer health services to citizens and non-citizens, based on primary research with Zimbabwean migrants who try to access the system. The paper argues that medical xenophobia is deeply entrenched in the South African public health system despite being a fundamental breach of the countrys Constitution and Bill of Rights, international human rights obligations and the existence of professional codes of ethics governing the treatment of patients.

The third wave: mixed migration from Zimbabwe to South Africa

Migration from Zimbabwe has recently been described as an archetypal form of “mixed migration” in which refugees and migrants are indistinguishable from one another. This paper argues that such a state-centred understanding of mixed migration oversimplifies a far more complex reality and fails to adequately account for the changing nature of Zimbabwean out-migration. Based on data from three separate Southern African Migration Programme (SAMP) surveys undertaken in 1997, 2005 and 2010 at key moments of transition, the paper shows how the form and character of mixed migration from the country has changed over time. The country’s emigration experience since 1990 is divided into three periods or “waves”. The third wave (roughly from 2005 onwards) has seen a major shift away from circular, temporary migration of individual working-age adults towards greater permanence and more family and child migration to South Africa. Zimbabwean migrants no longer see South Africa as a place of temporary economic opportunity for survival but rather as a place to stay and build a future for themselves and their families.

Vulnerability in crisis: urban household food insecurity in Epworth, Harare, Zimbabwe

Much of the contemporary literature on food security has focused on the rural sector. However, within the current context of high demographic growth, rapid urbanization and rising urban poverty which characterizes much of Sub-Saharan Africa, urban food insecurity cannot continue to be ignored. This study therefore examines the vulnerability of poor households to food insecurity in the challenging urban environment of Harare in Zimbabwe, an acute example of a city (and country) ‘in crisis’. Findings from qualitative and quantitative research demonstrate severe food insecurity characterized by critical food shortages and the consumption of narrower diets among poor households in the city. Household vulnerability to food insecurity stemmed from a range of factors, including: high levels of unemployment and poverty; high dependency ratios; low levels of house ownership; hyperinflation; skyrocketing food prices; and the general collapse of the formal food system. Vulnerability to food insecurity was further exacerbated by a prolonged adverse socio-political climate that undermined national economic recovery and reduced the livelihood opportunities available to the urban poor. The paper concludes that in Harare, as in most urban areas of the developing world, the urban poor have become highly vulnerable to food insecurity.

Urban Household Survival and Resilience to Food Insecurity in Crisis Conditions: The Case of Epworth in Harare, Zimbabwe

Much of the contemporary literature on food security in Sub-Saharan Africa has focused on the rural sector, with limited attention to urban areas whose inhabitants are equally vulnerable. Thus, little is known about how poor households deal with food insecurity under conditions of economic adversity and material deprivation in the urban environment. This article examines the strategies that poor urban households adopt to enhance their resilience in the face of food insecurity. Study results indicate that the resilience of poor urban households to food insecurity during a crisis situation such as that besetting Harare depends largely on 3 main factors: first, the resourcefulness of households in eking out a living through multiple income-generating activities; second, the existence of strong social links to rural households, which increases access to rural resources for urban survival; and third, the use of international remittances to increase household food security. In conclusion, the article argues that in a crisis situation such as that in Zimbabwe, survival largely depends on the ability of households to engage in multiple as well as multispatial activities that not only increase income sources but also reduce household expenses.

The Making of a Southern Diaspora: South- South Migration and Zimbabweans in South Africa

Diasporas are increasingly viewed as a vital untapped development resource by governments in the global South. As a result, strategies and programmes for diaspora engagement in development are very much on the global migration and development agenda. However, debates about the actual and potential role of diasporas in development are characterized by a striking myopia that tends to view diasporas from the South as located primarily or exclusively in the global North. The case of Zimbabwe is particularly interesting in this regard. The country has been a major global migrant source country for the last two decades as the economic and political crisis in a once well-managed state deepened. Though their lives and status in South Africa remain precarious, they are carving out lives and livelihoods and building social networks in a hostile land. What we are witnessing, therefore, is the act of creation of a diaspora as migration shifts from being temporary and circular in nature to being more diverse and permanent or semi-permanent. Under the current political dispensation in Zimbabwe, most members of the diaspora are likely to confine their engagements to family and personal matters and avoid engagement overtures from the Zimbabwean government. That said, Zimbabweans in South Africa increasingly identify with the notion that they are members of a diaspora and are starting to form associations and organize themselves to pursue a range of diaspora activities.

Food Insecurity in a State in Crisis

In 2008, Zimbabwe was in crisis, with an economy in ruins and a volatile political environment. The country’s GDP had contracted by over 40 % since its 2000 level, the official unemployment rate was over 80 %, hyperinflation was running at over 200 million percent, and food production deficits of the staple crop, maize, hovered around 1,000,000 tonnes. Within this hyperinflationary environment, food shortages were acute and over 80 % of households in the country survived on less than USD 2 per day. While this deleterious environment affected the whole country, the vulnerability of the urban poor to the economic meltdown and food insecurity was especially severe given their heavy reliance on food purchases and increases in other urban expenses such as rent, electricity and transport. This chapter assesses the vulnerability of poor households to food insecurity in Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare, under the crisis conditions and beyond. It argues that while the ushering in of the Government of National Unity in 2009 stabilized the political and economic situation by bringing down inflation, introducing a multi-currency regime, and improving the food supply, the general livelihoods of the poor did not drastically improve. The food security challenges facing poor urban households in Harare did not immediately improve for reasons that are discussed in the chapter. The analysis is based on a comparison of data from two household surveys conducted in Harare, the first at the height of the crisis in 2008 and the second in 2012.

Rural-Urban Transfers and Household Food Security in Harare's Crisis Context

Rural-Urban Transfers and Household Food Security in Harare’s Crisis Context This paper is based on research carried out in 2009 in the low-income residential area of Epworth in Harare, Zimbabwe. The paper assesses the contribution of rural-urban linkages to the food security of urban households in a crisis context. Research findings demonstrate that in conditions of extreme economic distress such as those that were besetting Zimbabwe at the time, the socio-cultural linkages that exist between the city and the village, as well as the economic relations of reciprocity embedded within these interactions are crucial to the survival of distressed urban households.

Following the Crisis: Povertyand Food Security in Harare,Zimbabwe

Following the Crisis: Poverty and Food Security in Harare, Zimbabwe Household food security in African cities has received increasing academic and policy attention in the past decade as the continent rapidly urbanizes. The African Food Security Urban Network has played a leading role in producing empirical research on the extent of household food insecurity and on its causal factors, but to date it has produced little longitudinal data. This paper addresses this gap by presenting the results of household food security surveys conducted in low-income neighbourhoods in Harare, Zimbabwe in 2008 and 2012. The analytical focus is on the changes that took place from the “crisis” situation in 2008, when the formal sector economy virtually ceased to function, to the situation in 2012 after new economic policies and a political detente had led to economic stabilization. The results show an overall improvement in food security but with important qualifications, such as the continued importance of non-monetized and informal food sources, continued problems with access to basic services and infrastructure, and the accrual of food security gains mostly among wealthier households.