Nearly 200,000 Zimbabweans have come home from South Africa

23 October 2026 · 7 min

Nearly 200,000 Zimbabweans have come home from South Africa since anti-migrant protests began, and Cabinet says the flow has slowed as police in Durban investigate another killing of a foreign national. Also in this episode: the drought plan, Zimbabwe taking the COMESA chair, Bulawayo's deadline for vendors, payments to pensioners, the sport, the weather and a deaf couple's handicraft business.

Nearly 200,000 Zimbabweans have come home from South Africa

Cyril Ramaphosa, President of South Africa, pictured at the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Photo: Ricardo Stuckert, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Cabinet was told on Tuesday that 197,294 Zimbabweans have come home since vigilante groups began hunting foreigners in some of South Africa's cities. Most made their own way: 154,741 returned by themselves. As of 6 October, 42,553 had been brought home through government arrangements, and about three in four of them were women and children. Cabinet says the flow of returnees has significantly declined.

On Thursday, police in Durban said they were investigating the killing of a foreign national by a crowd of about 50 people. They did not give the victim's nationality.

The March and March movement had told undocumented migrants to leave South Africa by 30 June. One of its leaders, Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma, has denied being xenophobic: "We can't be living with these people for so many years and now when we say it is too much, it is enough, we are told that we are xenophobic."

South Africa's government says only its own officers may enforce immigration law. In an open letter in June, President Cyril Ramaphosa wrote: "Whatever the motivation, taking the law into one's own hands is vigilantism and has no place in our constitutional democracy."

After Cabinet, Acting Information Minister Paul Mavima said: "Government continues to monitor the situation and is ready to respond to any possible influx of returnees in the future."

Sources: newzimbabwe.com, youtube.com, zimlive.com, newzimbabwe.com, zimlive.com

Cabinet approves a drought plan as Zimbabwe faces a grain shortfall of 663,188 tonnes

A maize field in Epworth, Zimbabwe. Photo: SuSanA Secretariat, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Cabinet has approved the 2026-2027 Summer Plan, which includes a drought plan, with a super El Niño predicted for the coming season. Acting Information Minister Professor Paul Mavima told a post-Cabinet briefing that the season faces two major threats: the predicted super El Niño and geopolitical tensions affecting fuel and fertiliser prices and supplies.

Zimbabwe expects to produce 1,607,198 tonnes of cereals against a national requirement of 2,270,386 tonnes. That leaves a shortfall of 663,188 tonnes, nearly three tonnes in every ten needed, which will require management of strategic grain reserves and limited imports.

The plan speeds up irrigation development, climate-smart farming, fertiliser imports and livestock protection. The government projects that 2,236,203 cattle could be at risk from drought next year.

Sources: heraldonline.co.zw

Zimbabwe takes over the COMESA chair from Kenya

William Ruto, President of Kenya. Photo: Presidenza della Repubblica, Attribution, via Wikimedia Commons.

Zimbabwe now chairs COMESA, the trade bloc of 21 member states in eastern and southern Africa, whose mandate is to promote trade and economic integration among its members. President Emmerson Mnangagwa took over the chairmanship from Kenya's President William Ruto at the summit in Harare on Thursday.

Mnangagwa said Zimbabwe would prioritise strengthening regional value chains and expanding economic opportunities. He said African countries must move away from exporting raw materials and process their natural resources locally to create jobs, boost industrial development and improve livelihoods.

Handing over, President Ruto said: "The past year tested us. The global economy was uncertain. Trade was disrupted. Supply lines were broken. Yet COMESA did not retreat. We held steady."

Sources: newzimbabwe.com, youtube.com

Bulawayo gives street vendors a week to move to approved markets

Bulawayo City Hall. Photo: Scott.wheeler, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The City of Bulawayo has given informal traders working from pavements, parking bays and other undesignated places a week to move voluntarily to council-approved markets. Traders who want a place at a designated market must register with the council between 26 October and 1 November. Trading from road servitudes, parking bays and pavements is prohibited under the council's by-laws.

In a notice dated 22 October, Town Clerk Christopher Dube said the directive followed instructions from the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works. He wrote: "The City of Bulawayo would like to emphasise that, while it values the role played by MSMEs in supporting livelihoods, trading from undesignated places such as road servitudes, parking bays and pavements is not allowed."

Sources: zimbabwesituation.com

Pensioners whose savings lost value in 2019 receive US$200 each

The front of a two-dollar Zimbabwe bond note printed in 2016. Photo: Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

The Insurance and Pensions Commission (IPEC) has started paying US$200 each, directly into EcoCash mobile money wallets, to 8,600 retired workers whose pensions lost value in the currency changes of 2019. The payments total US$1.75 million.

The scheme traces back to February 2019, when the government issued Statutory Instrument 33 of 2019. It unpegged the local RTGS dollar and bond note from the US dollar and set up an interbank foreign exchange market. The rapid exchange rate depreciation and high inflation that followed drastically eroded the purchasing power of pension funds and contractual savings overnight.

Sources: zimbabwesituation.com

Scottland take a 2-0 lead to Luanda for their Champions League return leg

The pitch and stands inside the Estádio 11 de Novembro in Luanda, Angola. Photo: L.Willms, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Scottland play Angola's Petro de Luanda on Friday in the return leg of their CAF Champions League tie, at the 48,000-seat Estádio 11 de Novembro in Luanda. They lead 2-0 from the first leg, played at the National Sports Stadium on Saturday, where Khama Billiat and Knowledge Musona inspired the win.

A good result in Luanda would take Scottland into the group stages of the competition.

Sources: zimlive.com, heraldonline.co.zw

Teenage Hadebe scores the winner for FC Cincinnati, his first goal for the club

Teenage Hadebe playing for FC Cincinnati in a match against New York City FC. Photo: Bryan Berlin, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Zimbabwe international defender Teenage Hadebe has scored his first goal for FC Cincinnati, and it won the match. Cincinnati beat DC United 2-1 in Major League Soccer on Wednesday.

Hadebe, who started at centre-back, scored what proved to be the decisive goal in the 55th minute, sliding in to tap home a well-delivered cross from Evander.

Sources: newzimbabwe.com

Clear and hot in the north, isolated thunderstorms possible in Matabeleland

An aerial view of the central zone of Harare under a clear sky. Photo: Radozw at Serbian Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The Meteorological Services Department expects Harare, northern Manicaland and the Mashonaland provinces to stay mostly clear and hot on Friday afternoon, with short periods of cloud possible. Bulawayo Metropolitan Province and Matabeleland North and South may see brief cloudy spells, wind and isolated thunderstorms.

The forecast follows a strong warning from the department as a heatwave hits parts of Zimbabwe, with temperatures of 44°C in some areas.

Sources: myzimbabwe.co.zw

A deaf couple, Alec and Farai Katsere, build a thriving handicraft business

A handicraft market in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. Photo: Frans-Banja Mulder, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Alec and Farai Katsere, a deaf couple, are turning their creativity into a thriving handicraft business that they have built together. Alec did the work first, and after the two married he trained his wife and taught her the craft.

Speaking to ZBC News through the broadcaster's sign language interpreter, Noble Mawungwa, Alec described how it began: "I then married my wife, and I started training her and teaching her how to do this, and she started learning well and she developed well."

Sources: youtube.com

Transcript

Paul Mavima: A total of 154,741 self-repatriations have been recorded to date.

Nyasha: That was Acting Information Minister Paul Mavima, speaking after Tuesday's Cabinet meeting. Good morning. This is the Zimbabwe News Brief from Executive AI Studio, for Friday the twenty-third of October. I'm Nyasha, an AI presenter. Today we look at the Zimbabweans coming home from South Africa. We'll also hear about the drought plan, Zimbabwe at the head of COMESA and a deadline for Bulawayo's vendors. And we'll end with a deaf couple who built a business together.

Nyasha: We'll start with those Zimbabweans coming home from South Africa. Our AI correspondent Farai has been following it.

Farai: Thanks, Nyasha. Cabinet was told on Tuesday that one hundred and ninety-seven thousand, two hundred and ninety-four Zimbabweans have come home since the anti-migrant protests began. most made their own way. Of those the government brought home, three in every four were women and children. Cabinet says the flow has significantly declined. Yet on Thursday, police in Durban said they were investigating the killing of a foreign national by a crowd of about fifty people. They did not give his nationality.

Farai: The movement March and March had told undocumented migrants to leave by the thirtieth of June. Here's what one of its leaders, Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma, has said, read here by an AI voice.

Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma (read by an AI voice): We can't be living with these people for so many years and now when we say it is too much, it is enough, we are told that we are xenophobic.

Farai: South Africa's government says only its own officers may enforce immigration law. In an open letter in June, President Cyril Ramaphosa put it like this.

Cyril Ramaphosa (read by an AI voice): Whatever the motivation, taking the law into one's own hands is vigilantism and has no place in our constitutional democracy.

Farai: Back home, the government says it is ready. Here's what Acting Information Minister Paul Mavima said after Cabinet.

Paul Mavima: Government continues to monitor the situation and is ready to respond to any possible influx of returnees in the future.

Farai: The question now is whether those who came back will find work, and whether those who stayed will be safe.

Nyasha: Farai, thank you.

Nyasha: Now for the rest of the day's news. Cabinet also approved a drought plan, with a super El Niño predicted. Zimbabwe expects to grow about one point six million tonnes of grain against a need of about two point three million, a gap of nearly three tonnes in every ten. The government says more than two million cattle could be at risk next year.

Farai: Zimbabwe now chairs COMESA, the trade bloc of twenty-one countries in eastern and southern Africa. President Mnangagwa took over from Kenya's William Ruto in Harare on Thursday, and promised to push for Africa's minerals to be processed locally. Here's what President Ruto said as he handed over.

William Ruto: The past year tested us. The global economy was uncertain. Trade was disrupted. Supply lines were broken. Yet commensa did not retreat. We held steady.

Nyasha: In Bulawayo, the city council has given vendors on pavements and in parking bays a week to move to approved markets. What you're hearing is the sound of a busy pavement market. Traders who want a place must register by the first of November.

Nyasha: Here's what Town Clerk Christopher Dube said in a notice.

Christopher Dube (read by an AI voice): The City of Bulawayo would like to emphasise that, while it values the role played by MSMEs in supporting livelihoods, trading from undesignated places such as road servitudes, parking bays and pavements is not allowed.

Farai: Now to pensioners. The Insurance and Pensions Commission has started paying two hundred US dollars each, by EcoCash, to eight thousand six hundred retired workers whose pensions lost value in the currency changes of two thousand and nineteen.

Farai: Now to the sport. Scottland play Petro de Luanda in Angola today in the CAF Champions League, two-nil up from the first leg, so a good result takes them into the group stages. And Warriors defender Teenage Hadebe scored the winner for FC Cincinnati, his first goal for the club.

Nyasha: Here's today's weather from the Meteorological Services Department. Harare, northern Manicaland and the Mashonaland provinces should stay mostly clear and hot. Bulawayo and Matabeleland North and South may see brief cloudy spells, wind and isolated thunderstorms.

Nyasha: And finally, a story of love and business. Alec and Farai Katsere, a deaf couple, are turning their creativity into a thriving handicraft business. Through a sign language interpreter, Alec told ZBC News how it began. Here's his story.

Alec Katsere: I then married my wife, and I started training her and teaching her how to do this, and she started learning well and she developed well,

Nyasha: This show is brought to you by Executive AI Studio. We build AI assistants for Zimbabwean businesses. Find us at executiveai.studio.

Nyasha: Sources for every story are in the episode notes and on the episode's page. This brief was researched and written by AI. I'm Nyasha. Have a good day.