Census22: Zimbabwe’s Population Increase in SA Not a Crisis or Tsunami, Migration Expert Says

• The Zimbabwean population in Mzansi has increased to over one million, according to StatsSA
• They make up a large chunk of the foreign nationals living in the country, followed by those from Malawi, Lesotho and the United Kingdom
• According to migration expert Professor Loren Landau, there are more migrants from around the world now than a decade ago
• Netizens doubt the figure and believe that there have to be more than two million Zimbabweans in the country

After discovering over one million Zimbabweans are in the country, South Africans were reeling. StatsSA also revealed that Zimbabweans account for over 38% of the foreign nationals in the country. A migration expert assured Briefly News that the situation is not as bad as Mzansi makes it out to be.

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StatsSA reveals over 1 million Zimbabweans

StatsSA's Census project director Calvin Molongoana also revealed that everyone in the country, from documented to undocumented, was counted. According to IOL, the Western Cape, Northern Cape, North West, Gauteng, and Mpumalanga saw the highest number of people moving into Gauteng and the others than people moving out.

The data also pointed out that most of the Zimbabweans living in South Africa and from other countries are between the ages of 20 and 44. The data further revealed that the top five countries where most of the foreign nationals originate from are Zimbabwe (45%), Mozambique (18.7%), Lesotho (10.2%) and Malawi.

Migration expert comments on the Zimbabwean population increase

Professor Loren Landau, South African Research Chair in Mobility and the Politics of Difference: African Centre for Migration & Society at Wits University, told Briefly News that the population increase is not a crisis.

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"What's fascinating about the new census results is that we see a downward adjustment in the percentage of the SA population that is international migrants. While there are more international migrants here than 10 or 20 years ago, their numbers have grown proportionately to the citizenry. This is not a crisis or a 'tsunami'.

"What's needed is a pragmatic, long-term regional framework to facilitate the legal movements of people for work or protection. People will continue to move due to economic inequality or the need for protection.

"The policy must start from that position and offer labour protection for everyone: protecting migrants in the workforce means they will be in better housing, be healthier and not undermine South Africans in the labour market."

Mzansi disputes the stats

Netizens on Facebook find the statistics hard to believe and pointed out that many more Zimbabweans are in the country.

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Cinga Buyani remarked:

“Zimbabweans are more than five million in SA. Four million are illegal immigrants.”

Hlangi Dlepu was stunned.

“We were never counted. Nobody ever entered my home to do a census, so the figures might not be correct. Those paid to do the job fabricated the numbers.”

Biran Thobani added:

“Big lie. How do you count undocumented people and the 100K who skip the borders at night?”

Makete Ditiro Masebedi exclaimed:

“I can say that the population is over two million easily.”

Nokuzola Mbedzi pointed out:

“We are six million, those of us without papers.”

South African population up by 10.3 million

In a similar article, Briefly News reported that the South African population increased by 10.3 million in 11 years.

According to stats released by StatsSA, the population went from 51 million to 62 million since 2011. The stats also revealed that the most spoken languages in the country are isiZulu, isiXhosa and Afrikaans.

Source: Briefly News