Zimbabwean diaspora in SA forms consortium to spearhead migrants' development

THE Zimbabwean diaspora community has collaborated with other African countries to form a consortium called African Development Consortium (ADC), which will initiate and run developmental programmes for migrants across the continent.

This was revealed by ADC officer and chief operations officer Butholezwe Nyathi early this week. He said ADC was a registered not-for-profit company under the Company Intellectual Property Commission in SA.

"One of its areas of work is organising and unleashing the potential of the migrant communities in various countries in Africa.  We have since unveiled a working document for the programme, which shall serve as a broader framework with various supporting proposals at specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-framed (SMART) objectives," Nyathi said.

"The implementation of this document shall be overseen by the board of directors of the ADC and the implementation of the various projects emanating from this document shall be the function of the teams in those projects, who will report to the chief operations officer of the ADC.

"The duration of this document shall be 24 months and shall be reviewed per raising need during this period. The vision is to see Africans working together for the development of the continent from grassroots through self-determination leading to self-reliance."

Nyathi said the group would organise migrants in southern Africa into various developmental activities in their host countries to work with citizens of those countries.

They will also be assisted in post-repatriation issues to their countries of origin.

"The areas of focus will be organising migrants into groups for voluntary repatriation and post repatriation. We also seek to establish sustainable and developmental projects in collaboration with business facilitation forums, as well as offer psycho-social services and spiritual support."

He said migrants would be registered into a database that is reliable and up-to-date on a continuous basis, while skills audits will be conducted to assist them with career development in collaboration with government institutions and non-governmental organisations that work with migrants.

"Traditional leaders will also be consulted in the case of former migrants to assist them re-establish themselves within communities in their countries of origin. ADC will recognise experiences gained, and also assist those who need to finish their education, and facilitate and promote recognition of prior learning as a way of boosting migrants' confidence through certification among a cocktail of programmes," Nyathi said. "There shall be various budgets per programme of the ADC and those shall be monitored by the ADC accountant. The ADC shall have the main account and programme accounts."

The consortium formation comes at a time when foreigners face pressure from South Africans who are pushing for their deportation on the grounds that they were taking their jobs and committing crimes.