Executive Summary Background Zimbabweans are now the second biggest group of foreign Africans in South Africa. Yet there is little formal information available on their situation. Very few are being officially recorded as political refugees. Some Zimbabweans claim that it is hard to access asylum seeker status. It was the intention of the authors to investigate these allegations, as well as to establish other problems and issues of relevance to Zimbabweans in South Africa. South Africa needs to brace itself for ever-greater numbers of Zimbabweans unless a lasting political solution is found to the current crisis. At both government and NGO level, there is a need to devise policies to deal humanely with the influx, and particularly to provide services on the ground. For this, more information is needed. Method: data sources Data for this report was collected between September 2003 and October 2004. Sources of data included: a desk study of media, human rights reports and refugee laws; more than two hundred interviews with Zimbabweans in South Africa; 7 field visits to the Johannesburg RRO; 10 field visits to places of residence; two surveys involving a further 211 Zimbabweans; interviews with key informants; 4 field visits to Musina; 3 field visits to Beitbridge. PART ONE: Zimbabwe’s biggest export: its people Part One of the report looks at: the crisis of governance in Zimbabwe; the humanitarian crisis; the economic crisis. It examines numbers of Zimbabweans in the diaspora and the implications of this. 1. The breakdown of law and order: torture with impunity Human rights organisations estimate that a minimum of 300,000 people have been victims of human rights violations of various kinds over the last four years. Such violations include torture, destruction of homesteads, massive displacement of persons fleeing political persecution or farm invasions, and the denial of food to those perceived to support the opposition. Around 300 have been murdered for political reasons. The cumulative impact on life in Zimbabwe is harrowing. Recording and publicising the problem is close to impossible because of laws restricting freedom of association, expression and movement. Government agents have impunity and very few cases of violation result in charges being laid against perpetrators. Two hundred and fifty thousand school leavers each year have little or no prospect of formal training or employment; further training and jobs in the civil service now require youth to undergo the politically biased and brutalising national youth service training. Some youths flee Zimbabwe to avoid militia training. None has doubted the need for land redistribution, including civil society and the political opposition, but the well orchestrated abuse of a much needed programme by the government has resulted in new injustices. 7