Zimbabweans face 5-year South Africa re-entry ban

Zimbabwean nationals who voluntarily agreed to return home from South Africa have expressed shock and disappointment after learning they will be declared undesirable and barred from re-entering the country for up to five years.

Hundreds of Zimbabweans have been gathering at the Department of Home Affairs offices in Epping, Cape Town, since Sunday, where authorities are processing voluntary repatriations to the Beitbridge border crossing.

The departures come amid fears of violence ahead of Tuesday's planned nationwide anti-immigration protests, despite repeated assurances by Cyril Ramaphosa and Acting Police Minister Firoz Cachalia that peaceful demonstrations would be protected while intimidation and attacks on foreign nationals would not be tolerated.

The City of Cape Town has activated area-based Joint Operations Centres, with the Disaster Coordinating Team in Goodwood leading operations aimed at preventing violence, looting and intimidation while ensuring a coordinated response to any incidents.

On Sunday, three buses transported 231 people from Cape Town to Limpopo for onward processing and repatriation.

Among them was 33-year-old Chrispen Bhebhe, who spent Sunday night sleeping outside the Home Affairs office with his wife. He said he had intended to return to South Africa after visiting Zimbabwe but was devastated to learn he would be prohibited from re-entering the country.

"I am told they are now banning us for five years, so I do not know how we will come back. There is nothing waiting for us in Zimbabwe. I left because I could not get a job," he said.

Bhebhe said he had been working as a farm labourer in Robertson for the past five months after previously working on a farm in Limpopo. Having arrived in South Africa in 2015, he said he had been supporting his family in Zimbabwe while building a house.

"I was sending money home to support my child, who lives with her grandmother. But we had to leave because we feared for our lives. Everywhere people were telling us to go home and they even went to the farm where we were working," he said.

Another returnee, 43-year-old Gibson Nyamukwengu, who worked as a bus driver in Worcester for seven years, said being documented had offered no protection from growing hostility.

"I have all my papers and my documents are up to date. I am here because it does not matter to these people whether you are documented or not. I knew these guys were going to beat you regardless," he said.

Nyamukwengu, who recently suffered a stroke and spent two months in hospital, said he now faces uncertainty over his medical treatment.

"I am supposed to return in September for my medication, but I do not know what I am going to do now. Here I am not being helped. I slept outside in the courtyard with women and children and got soaked by the rain. There was no humanity," he said.

The City of Cape Town, working with the Department of Home Affairs, relocated Zimbabweans who had been camping outside the Zimbabwean Consulate in District Six to the Epping processing centre.

Department of Home Affairs spokesperson Luthando Mavuso said the period for which an individual is declared undesirable depends on how long they had remained in South Africa illegally.

"All we can do as Home Affairs is declare people undesirable. It is the responsibility of consulates and embassies to issue them with travel documents," he said.

Mavuso said foreign missions had been requested to direct citizens seeking voluntary repatriation to the temporary processing centre in Musina, where officials ensure individuals are escorted across the border once all procedures have been completed.

Humanitarian organisation Gift of the Givers said it had provided meals to approximately 1,200 people, including 252 children, between Sunday and Monday morning.

Organisation spokesperson Ali Sablay said confusion over the repatriation programme had prompted more migrants from towns including Robertson to travel to Cape Town, while Malawian and Mozambican nationals had also arrived hoping to be included.

He said Gift of the Givers was erecting three temporary tents at the Home Affairs offices after hundreds of people, including women and children, spent consecutive nights sleeping outdoors in severe weather, with some becoming ill.

Western Cape Premier Alan Winde warned that authorities would act decisively against anyone engaging in violence during the protests.

"We fully respect every resident's constitutional right to protest. However, this right must always be exercised peacefully and within the bounds of the law. I call on all residents to reject violence in all its forms. There is no justification for violence under any circumstances. This is not who we are as South Africans," Winde said.

He and members of the Western Cape Cabinet attended a Joint Operations Centre meeting with representatives from municipalities, the South African Police Service and the South African National Defence Force to coordinate the province's security response ahead of the planned demonstrations.