The South African military has deployed helicopters to its shared Beitbridge border crossing with Zimbabwe in order to prevent an influx of illegal immigrants into the country following the end of the holiday season. It is estimated that thousands of Zimbabwean immigrants who were residing in South Africa travelled back to Zimbabwe over the holiday festive season. However, South African authorities claim that many of them used “illegal entry points”, as they do not have passports.
Others used fake negative COVID-19 certificates, stoking fears of an increase in coronavirus cases on both sides of the border. In fact, Zimbabwe recently announced a nationwide lockdown amid a surge in new cases; hence, South Africa is reluctant to let many of these immigrants back in, particularly those that do not possess the requisite documentation.
Zimbabwe recorded 774 new cases on Sunday, the highest daily spike since the outbreak first began in the country. As a result, Zimbabwe has now registered over 15,000 cases. South Africa itself has recorded over 1.1 million cases and registered over 30,000 deaths. There continue to be around 10,000 new cases each day. Therefore, South African health authorities are highly wary about anything that could further jeopardise this already precarious situation.
Accordingly, South African Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi noted that police have also deployed boats to patrol the Limpopo river in order to monitor the entire 200-kilometre border the country shares with Zimbabwe. Motsoaledi added that these measures have resulted in the arrest of 500 illegal Zimbabwean immigrants per day.
He said, “We have said this before - that we heard rumours that there are people who will come with fraudulent certificates and have found them and we are returning them,” adding, “We are arresting people with no documents, either Covid-19 certificates or passports.” The Home Affairs minister also alleged that Zimbabwean soldiers and police were complicit in these activities.
Likewise, Home Affairs spokesperson Siya Qoza said, “If you come into the country with fake documents you will immediately be deported. That is the decision that the minister [Motsoaledi[ took and it has been communicated to everyone. People who are here [at the border], who either have expired [Covid-19] tests or do not have any tests at all, will get assisted through on-site testing.”
It is estimated that South Africa houses upwards of 1.5 Zimbabwean economic refugees. Hence, these latest measures are sure to impact hundreds if not thousands of families who returned to Zimbabwe over the holiday season. Many work in the informal sector, and thus rarely possess proper paperwork and documentation.
Zimbabwean opposition party MDC Alliance (MDC-A), which also has an office in South Africa, said that these measures fail to acknowledge that at least part of this illegal immigration is driven by the South African government’s inability and unwillingness to address the “economic meltdown of Zimbabwe”. It alleges that the ruling SADC party holds a friendly relationship with the ruling party in Zimbabwe.
In addition, it is also possible that certain groups and individuals in South Africa are aiding this cross-border migration. This claim is supported by the fact that two South Africans were detained a few days earlier for attempting to assist 15 illegal Malawian immigrants leave the country.
South Africa has also deployed troops to its Kosi Bay border crossing to control immigration from Mozambique.
South Africa Takes Measures to Restrict Illegal Immigration From Zimbabwe and Mozambique
Following the end of the holiday season, the South African military has deployed troops to the country’s borders in order to prevent an uncontrollable surge in coronavirus cases.
January 6, 2021
SOURCE: DAILY MAVERICK