Chamisa's MDC blames Mnangagwa for Beitbridge chaos

PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa's administration is to blame for the ongoing crisis at Beitbridge border post as many Zimbabweans are illegally leaving the country to South Africa to escape from his maladministration, the main opposition party has said.

So far above 89 000 Zimbabwean border jumpers have been arrested as they tried to go back to South Africa after coming for the festive holidays.

The South African government tightened its security to block undocumented Zimbabweans from flocking into the country.

In a statement the MDC Alliance National Spokesperson Fadzayi Mahere demanded an urgent attention to the ongoing crisis at the border.

"We call for an urgent resolution to the crisis at the border post. However, as we have often stated, to focus only on the situation at Beitbridge would be to merely deal with symptoms of a bigger problem," Mahere said

"That bigger problem is the crisis of governance underwritten by a political process that is contaminated by illegitimacy. It is very important to attend to the bigger problem otherwise the situation at Beitbridge will be repeated and it will be worse the next time around," she said.

"The forced migration crisis at the Beitbridge border is a manifestation of a long-standing crisis of governance in Zimbabwe. While people move from country to country throughout the world, the Zimbabwe-South Africa migration is driven largely by chronic unemployment and extreme poverty in Zimbabwe which are directly connected to the illegitimacy of Mr Mnangagwa's regime," she added.

"Zanu-PF's failure in governance is why the huge transnational flows of people between South Africa are made up almost exclusively for Zimbabweans. This one-way traffic is a reminder that the problem is on our side of the border and unless this is resolved, it will escalate in the coming years."