21/05/2026
There is something I want to say to all foreign nationals in South Africa, especially to my fellow Zimbabweans and our brothers and sisters across Africa.
When a snake enters your house and you run for safety into the house of your brother, you do not abandon your responsibilities back home. You do not become so comfortable in your brother’s house that you forget your own house exists. Instead, you seek safety while making a plan to remove the snake from your home so that one day you can return and continue living in your own house with dignity.
I say this because I am witnessing a deep disappointment across our continent.
Many Africans left their nations and came to South Africa seeking economic refuge and opportunities
South Africa opened its doors as a brother and sister would. It gave shelter, opportunity, and space to breathe.
But now the brother is saying: “I am tired. I have had enough. I cannot carry this burden forever. Go back and help fix your home.”
That is not necessarily a message of hate. It can also be a message of exhaustion. Imagine your brother saying: “There was a snake in your house. You came here and I gave you safety. I even gave you support. But instead of removing the snake, you called your brothers, then they called their brothers, then their children came too. Now who remains to fix your house?”
That is a difficult question, but it deserves reflection.
If everyone leaves Zimbabwe🇿🇼, Malawi🇲🇼, Zambia🇿🇲, Mozambique🇲🇿 and other nations, who will build them? If every young graduate sees migration as the only dream, who will transform those countries? If everyone escapes, who remains to remove the snake?
And when people raise these concerns, stop immediately assuming it is hatred. Sometimes people are not saying “we hate you.” Sometimes they are saying, “we are tired.”
Instead of attacking South Africans who express frustration, maybe this is the moment for us to reflect. We must begin putting our own houses in order.
There