Zimbabwean Finance Minister Tendai Biti has called upon the millions-strong Zimbabwean diaspora to help national reconstruction by providing investment capital and even paying an expatriate tax in return for reforms that would allow diaspora members to cast absentee ballots and hold dual citizenship.
Some initial reactions were hostile, but others liked the potential trade-off.
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai meanwhile has repeated his call to exiled Zimbabweans to come home with their much-needed skills and savings.
When Mr. Tsvangirai preached this message to expatriates in London last June he drew catcalls. But diaspora members were more receptive last week when he renewed his call for large-scale repatriation to a Cape Town audience.
For a closer look at diaspora opinion, VOA Studio 7 reporter Sandra Nyaira turned to two prominent Zimbabwean expatriates: Ephraim Tapa, president of the U.K. chapter of Restoration of Human Rights, and Zimbabwe Exiles Forum Executive Director Gabriel Shumba in Pretoria.
Shumba says the proposal to give Zimbabweans abroad voting rights and dual citizenship is welcome - but demanding taxes in return amounts to extortion.
* VoA
