Mon séjour en Afrique du Sud (Cape Town)

Zimbabweans returning through the Beit Bridge border post were highly sceptical of yesterday’s elections and believe they were fixed.

Most of the border-crossers said they didn’t vote. On Friday some 3 000 people went through the border.

Zacharia Mvelo said he was not registered and had not planned to vote. “I just hope things will change. I don’t know whether it (elections) will make any difference. I was home (in Zimbabwe) for three weeks and it is always worse than before. The voting is not any different from the past elections.”

The Morgan Tsvangirai supporter said President Robert Mugabe’s bid to stay in power at the age of 84 was not justified “but I cannot support (Simba) Makoni either”.

Another Tsvangirai supporter said Zanu-PF would win “with or without rigging”.

Garayi Nyamwanza from Harare, who owns an export business said: “I went to register and stood in the queue for three hours. The election officials said I need an affidavit from my father proving I am his son. What is that? It was Zanu-PF’s way of controlling who votes in areas where there are few of their supporters.”

Adriaan Lackey, spokesman for the Border Control Co-ordinating Committee, said: “It’s very quiet in terms of people crossing the border. We haven’t had any major influx in the past three days.”

Human rights organisations from South Africa – who are stationed in Musina during the elections – are reluctant to comment on the developments in Zimbabwe.

Red Cross team leader Mbuso Mthembu said they would render relief and first aid if there was a need.

He said similar operations were being carried out at other borders around Zimbabwe including Kazungula bordering Botswana, Livingstone crossing to Zambia and Nyamapanda and Mwanga in Mozambique.

Michael Malindi, a senior border control officer, said staff in all departments including immigration and customs, SANDF, emergency services, and safety and security were increased from the beginning of March until next Wednesday.

“I cannot say whether there will be a huge number of people coming back tomorrow (Sunday) but everything is running smoothly.”

Yesterday border police intensified their search for illegal immigrants.

Malindi said the deportation rate had been normal through-out the week and there were contingency plans in case there was trouble.