Population explosion in Beitbridge due to border jumpers

By Tichaona Sibanda
19 January 2007

The border town of Beitbridge faces a massive population explosion as authorities struggle to relocate border jumpers deported from South Africa. The high number of people in the town is also choking and stretching the district council’s service delivery to the limit.

Investigations by Newsreel this week reveal that since the beginning of the year South African immigration officials have been deporting at least ten bus-loads of border jumpers to Zimbabwe each day.

A source at the border town said once immigrants are ‘dumped’ in the country, authorities face a daunting task of providing accomodation, food and transport back to their home areas.

‘In many of the cases the deportees refuse to go back to their hommes in the hope of trying their luck again to cross the crocodile infested Limpopo river. In the end, they end up loitering around the town doing all sorts of things in search of food, money and shelter,’ said our source.

This week alone our source said he has seen a huge influx of deportees from South Africa.

Over a 100 Zimbabweans are illegally crossing into South Africa daily in search of jobs despite intensified police patrols along the Limpopo River and the dangers of drowning, possible arrest and deportation. Recently the Ministers of Labour from Zimbabwe and South Africa, Nicholas Goche and Membathisi Mdladlana met in Beitbridge over the issue.

South Africa is now deporting an average of 500 Zimbabweans every day, with about 1000 being sent home every Thursday when the biggest holding camp Lindela is cleared for new arrivals.

But it is the number of new deportees who hang around the border town that is worrying authorities. In recent press articles police in Beitbridge have accused the deportees of fanning crime in the border town.

‘Cases of robberies, house breaking and violence have risen sharply in the last six months and we suspect the authorities are failing to cope because they are overwhelmed by the sheer number of new arrivals in the town,’ said our source.