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Dr Masimba Mavaza

Many Zimbabweans have flocked to the United Kingdom under Health Care visa. Many more Zimbabweans have made money by exploiting their own in charging exorbitant prices to process visas.

So many people have experienced the United Kingdom for the first time and now they understand that all that glitters is not gold.

Mandinema Kadhau realised it as soon as she got into the UK.

Here is her story.

She sat in a corner of a very cold room in Leeds, United Kingdom. She struck a regretting figure in the sharp cutting cruel winter of the English December. The temperatures have gone down to minus five. The land Lord switches off the gas to cushion from the economic depression cutting across the United Kingdom.

She was shivering from the high cold as she narrated her story.

“If anyone tells you life is a dull and predictable business, let them hear my story. In 2015 I lost my parents and in 2021 I sold my home so that I could finance a visa application to the UK as a carer.  When I left for the UK all my possessions were the clothes in my suitcase. I was offered a job by another Care Agency and they had promised me heaven and earth. But when I got to the UK or Great Britain as it is called I was dumped at the airport. Nobody came to pick me up. I had nowhere to go and no reason to think my life would amount to much. In the few months that lived in the UK I had more adventures than most people see in a life time. I learned how it feels to be rejected by those who pretend to care and what it means to be a slave. “. Mandie as she is called by her friends narrated in between tears.

I entered London city for the first time in my life. I had never visited such a big city before and was stunned by the huge height of the buildings and the narrow streets that spewed out pedestrians like a stream bursting through a set of rapids.  The sparkling goods on display in thousands of shop windows the hubbub and noise the foul smells and fine clothes everywhere the latest cars on earth scared me. I wondered whether I was in England or heaven. I let the crowds carry me along gazing at the sights. But all the time there was a cold  gnawing in my stomach a sense of something missing. I realised at once that Home is best.

I led myself into an office of my agency in London. I was then told that I have not confirmed my employment so I will have nothing to becoming to the office for.

I realised I was on my own.

I decided to visit my uncle who has been in the UK for the past twenty so years. I had to call

Him first. I used the Zimbabwean number which was still

On the WhatsApp. He

Was very jovial and

Happy as always. When I told him I was in the UK and was stranded he snapped. He

then asked me to call him later. That was the last his phone was reachable.

I had to sleep on a bus stop. It was freezing cold. I then remembered I had a pastor who migrated to the UK. I got his number and called him.  He told me he can not stay with me. He reminded me England was a working field. He reminded me the story at Bathsseda pool in the bible. Every one there wanted healing so he wanted healing too. But he

Offered me a room for a fee. There was no gas no power. It was a five

Star to me considering I was from a bus stop.

I was fortunate enough to get another sponsor who took me in and gave me a job. My job is to go house to house making tea for clients making and serving them lunch and putting them to bed in the evening. This means you need to be driving around remember this is my first time in England. Everything about England is confusing.

You can imagine having been thrust in the thickest of things. Our accent are completely different. They can not hear me no matter how I try to speak in the Borrowdale or Vinona accent. That did not and does not work.

I dread going back to my room which I am paying half of my salary for. It is very cold more than a freezer. I am not sure if I will survive a month.  The glittering of England is not all that glittering. I started thinking of thousands Zimbabweans who are selling cars and houses to come to England.

Whatever we have been told. Zimbabwe is our only country we can call ours. Life is a struggle. “

Mandinema promised to give us her first day at work in our next week segment.

She will be going into detail on lies and promises covering England. The land of honey with no bees. —[email protected]