I was hugely disappointed to read an article today that highlighted that pensioners that have left Zimbabwe for the United Kingdom are faced with further poverty as they attempt to pick up the pieces of their lives.

“Over 60 white pensioners with British passports who were repatriated from Zimbabwe face destitution in Britain as the country is failing to provide them with adequate food and shelter.
A survey carried out by the Zimbabwe Guardian reveals that many of the repatriated pensioners are still in temporary accommodation awaiting to be allocated housing. Many of them still do not get a decent meal and are yet to receive the promised benefits.

Pensioner poverty rates in the UK are already at unacceptably high levels and this latest news adds to the gloom.

Many of the pensioners, who are over 60 years of age, are unlikely to find decent accommodation in time for winter, which is only a few months away.”

We left Zimbabwe in late 1998 and it took us until very late 2000 to find housing that, whilst small, is acceptable - for us at any rate.

I can sympathise with the people coming over in their retirement years as they struggle, not only to come to terms with the culture shock, but with the probability that their poverty is set to continue.

Yes, in the UK if we turn on a tap, there is water - if we flick a light switch, the lights come on. In the supermarkets we have the choice of several different kinds of bread, milk and other foodstuffs. There are foods available that haven’t been seen in Zimbabwe for many years.

But in the United Kingdom there is creeping inflation - probably just the same as elsewhere in the world. When we first moved into our bungalow, a bottle of milk was just 99 pence - and today, nine years later, that same bottle of milk costs £1.35…

We notice it here, but people coming from Zimbabwe, where there has been little or nothing to purchase - even if you had the money - will be rocked by the change of environment.

Living on the system is not easy - I am obliged to do it as no one wants to employ a 46 year old with a crippled arm, so I know what I am talking about.

“In June this year, Britain started repatriating pensioners with British passports and living in Zimbabwe.

The Zimbabwean government said the move by Britain was racist and was an admission that the illegal sanctions imposed by that country were not targeted to top leadership only; but were indiscriminate and targeted every Zimbabwean.

A pensioner who wanted to be identified only as Mark told the Zimbabwean Guardian that since he entered the UK he has only heard from the authorities twice.

“We have been provided with this shelter and food here in Leeds and nothing else.

“We are still to be properly registered with social services. No one seems to know or care where we are and about our welfare,” said Mark who said he was 69 years old.

“We do not even know where to go to claim the money that we have been promised.”

Let’s just have a very quick look at the attitude taken by the Zimbabwean government. How can the removal of the pensioners be ‘racist’ if the pensions that these people earned are not being paid because of the collapse of the Zimbabwean economy? Does Mugabe expect these people to remain in Zimbabwe to live in abject poverty brought on by his mismanagement of the country?

And, if I am not mistaken, when the idea of moving the pensioners first was heard by the Zimbabwean government, their reaction was: “Take them! We don’t need them!” - or words to that effect.

The Zimbabwean government, coalition or otherwise, cannot play both sides of the same coin. Either they don’t want the pensioners, or the moving of the pensioners is ‘racist’ - but they can’t have both.

Why does the Mugabe administration regard any move by the West as racist? Have they not worked out that there are thousands - many thousands - of black Zimbabweans that have left Zimbabwe for greener pastures? Their move was not racist, but economic.

What is the difference between them and the pensioners, apart from the colour of their skin?

Pathetic…

Robb WJ Ellis
The Bearded Man