Mon séjour en Afrique du Sud (Cape Town)

BETWEEN 5 000 and 6 000 Zimbabweans legally cross the Beit Bridge border post into South Africa every day and only a few of them return home.

This is besides the suspected 1 000 a day who enter the country illegally to look for work on farms along the Zimbabwe-South African border.

These claims were made by a DA delegation after its visit to Beit Bridge yesterday to investigate the situation regarding Zimbabweans crossing into South Africa.

DA spokesperson on Home Affairs Mike Lowe said the statistics were provided by officials working at the border post and also from interviews with business people and farmers.

“This number is a 100% increase from the number coming in two weeks ago. We expect the number to grow next month when the Zimbabwean government cracks down on goods coming into the country.”

The Department of Home Affairs could not readily provide official figures to verify the number of Zimbabweans crossing into South Africa.

The Department of Home Affairs should admit there is a humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe, said Lowe.

“But the ANC government will not do that because it would be an acknowledgement that the government’s quiet diplomacy policy on Zimbabwe has failed. That’s why the Minister of Home Affairs (Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula) is denying that there is a problem in Zimbabwe,” he said.

The SAPS, said Lowe, could not cope with the work load and were incapacitated.

Lowe said that the roads coming from the border post were filled with Zimbabweans coming into the country.

The DA’s visit follows a similar trip by ANC MPs in the Peace and Security cluster portfolio committees who went to Beit Bridge last week and reported 5 000 Zimbabweans trying to enter South Africa had been arrested this month.

Patrick Chauke, Home Affairs portfolio committee chairperson and ANC MP, said a comprehensive report on their findings would be ready next week.

The chairpersons of the respective portfolio committees would then meet with the ministers and directors-general of the affected departments.

It is understood the report finds fault with lack of capacity and co-ordination between government departments and agencies, namely the SAPS, Home Affairs and the SA National Defence Force, working at Beit Bridge.

It also highlights the “vacuum” left by the pulling out of SANDF members from some of the unfenced border areas, thus making it easier for illegal immigrants to enter the country.

“It’s important that we deal with the political heads who are the implementers of the departments’ programmes to iron out some of our findings. But obviously the details will come out when the report is ready,” said Chauke.

Mapisa-Nqakula’s spokesperson, Cleo Mosana, accused the DA of playing “political football” with the Zimbabwean issue. “The DA issued a press statement saying there’s a crisis in Zimbabwe and only wrote to (Mapisa-Nqakula) the following day.

“One would have expected the DA would want to engage with the government in a better way knowing there were negotiations taking place. And also taking into account that the SA Development Community has tasked (President Thabo Mbeki) to lead the mediation process in Zimbabwe.”