Children, women, and the elderly are bearing the brunt of heightened migration in Matabeleland South that is driven by frequent droughts that have been blamed on climate change, government data shows.
The receding rainfall activity has significantly affected agriculture and livelihoods, particularly during the 1990s and early 2000s, with notable drought years including 1992, 1994, 2002, 2008, 2016, 2019 and 2024, forcing young people to join the great trek to neighbouring South Africa and Botswana.
A recent investigation by CITE with support from the Information for Development Trust (IDT), a non-profit organisation supporting investigative journalism in Zimbabwe and southern Africa, revealed a growing trend of environmental refugees originating from Matabeleland South. International Organisation for Migration (IOM) records showed that 52 percent of the people who left Zimbabwe in September 2024 were coming from Matabeleland South.
One of the reasons for leaving the country was lack of opportunities, which is worsened by frequent droughts.
Indepth interviews with villagers from Empandeni village and other parts of Mangwe in Matabeleland South indicated most families had members who were forced to cross to either Botswana or South Africa because subsistence agriculture, the most common activity in the area, was no longer sustainable due to the dry spells.
The Zimbabwe Statistics Agency (ZimStat) 2022 Population and Housing Census preliminary results showed that Matabeleland South, with a population of 760 345, had by far the highest number of households with people that migrated to other countries at 32.6 percent of the national figure.
The census revealed 84 percent of the people that left the country, mainly school leavers in the case of regions like Matabeleland South, were looking for jobs.
Most families headed by the elderly
According to the governmentโs 2024 Rural Livelihoods Assessment Report, Matabeleland South had one of largest proportions of families headed by the elderly at 33,4 percent and migration is cited as one of the possible reasons. At least 0.5 percent of the families in the province are child headed while women comprise 54 percent of household members across the region, compared to 46 percent for men.
โThis female dominance is particularly striking in Mangwe District, where 60.4% of household members are women, the highest proportion in the region,โ the report said.
โBeitbridge reported the smallest gender gap, with women accounting for 56.5% of household members and men 43.5%.โ
โUmzingwane District recorded the highest percentage of elderly-headed households at 43.3%, followed by Gwanda (38%) and Matobo (37.2%).โ
Criswell Nyakudya, Matabeleland South Provincial Social Development Officer, told CITE children were disadvantaged the most by the high levels of migration in the province as the majority of the people that were leaving the country were of child-bearing age.
โChildren are left behind by people who travel to South Africa or Botswana from Matabeleland South,โ Nyakudya told CITE.
โThere are various support programmes that we have put in place together with non-governmental institutions (to take care of children of absentee parents).
โOne of the responses is that if the situation really gets bad, children are sometimes taken to childrenโs homes.โ
He said children whose parents cannot be located after moving to other countries were being placed at childrenโs homes in the province such as Ekhaya Cape Kino in Gwanda, White Waters in Matobo, and Sacred Heart in Umzingwane district.
Some are also taken care of temporarily at border reception areas in Beitbridge and Plumtree, which are run by the government.
โThese two are government institutions, which take children at a place of safety, that is, if push comes to shove,โ said Nyakudya.
โChildren that are left behind are sometimes prone to abuse including sexual abuse, physical abuse and emotional abuse.โ
Some parents that leave their children behind when they migrate usually return home during the school holidays to visit them.
Trafficking children to SA, Botswana
Others use cross border transporters, known locally as omalayitsha, to transport the children across the borders for visits during the holidays.
During school holidays, South Africa and Botswana often intercept large groups of children from Matabeleland South, who will be visiting their parents in those countries.
โSuch children are, at times, intercepted at the border by border officials and handed over to the Department of Social Development,โ Nyakudya said.
โThese intercepted children are put in homes on a short basis, while we trace and try to reunify them with their parents or guardians.
โThe Childrenโs Act is a statutory instrument, which empowers us to deal with these children.โ
Nqabutho Mabhena, chairperson of the Zimbabwe Community in South Africa, said children from Matabeleland South were being denied parent care because of the high levels of migration caused by lack of opportunities.
โThe hardships that, especially young people have had to endure in Zimbabwe has resulted in many parents and guardians migrating to South Africa and Botswana for improved economic prospects,โ Mabhena said.
โThis has meant that a lot of children are left in the care of close family friends and relatives, especially grandparents, some of them advanced in age.โ
Taking care of abandoned children
The development officer said parents that migrate and leave their children behind should be aware that the state is compelled to take into its care minors that are abandoned.
Nyakudya said that regaining the custody of the children was not an easy process.
โYou cannot simply come back and say โgive me my childโ and we give you,โ he said.
โWe want to know why you have done that. You have to go through a process and you can also be arrested in the process. Arrests can happen, I am not saying people have been arrested.
โIt is illegal because you would have breached the provisions of the Childrenโs Act by leaving children on their own, so thatโs a criminal activity on its own. You can eventually get the child back but a lot of people in this region think that childrenโs homes are boarding facilities, they are not.โ
The Matabeleland South (ZimLAC) 2024 Rural Livelihoods Assessment said unemployment was the major challenge facing the youth in province at 79.4 percent followed by substance abuse (67.6 percent).
It also noted agriculture has become unviable because of changes in climate with about 60.1 percent of households not owning cattle and 25 percent without goats.
About 92 percent of the communities indicated pastures were often inadequate and of poor quality.
