3 000 return from South Africa

ZIMBABWE will temporarily open Beitbridge Border Post this week to receive more than 3 000 of its citizens from South Africa.

Most of the returnees reportedly crossed the border illegally into the neighbouring country and have requested to be sent back home in the wake of the coronavirus.

Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Deputy Minister Lovemore Matuke said arrangements with their South African counterparts were being made to allow even those without the requisite papers to pass through.

“We have more than 3 000 (citizens) who have requested to be sent back home. The South African side of the border is closed too, but we have made arrangements that they be allowed to pass. Even those without the required papers should not be afraid,” said Deputy Minister Matuke.

“No one is going to be arrested. We do not want them to use illegal channels to come back because we want to account for everyone in the wake of Covid-19. Government has put everything in place to ensure they are catered for.”

He said some of them were of no fixed abode in South Africa and were living a cat- and-mouse life with that country’s law enforcement agents, while others were doing odd jobs that have been foreclosed by the lockdown, which has since been extended for two more weeks.

The Deputy Minister said they have created space at the National Social Security Authority’s Beitbridge Hotel, where the 3000 would be isolated and tested for Covid-19.

He added that Government provide for the returnees during their stay at the facility.

“We have people coming from Botswana, who are housed at Hillside Teachers College, Bulawayo Polytechnic and some at Plumtree High School. I will be touring those places to get an appreciation of their safety,” he said.

Government, he added, was working to capacitate children’s homes that have absorbed street kids, while vulnerable households have started receiving cushioning allowances.

Meanwhile, the Zimbabwean Embassy in Namibia has also requested all Zimbabwean nationals who have been affected by the lockdown and wish to travel back home to register their names tomorrow and on Tuesday.

However, unlike those in South Africa, Zimbabweans in Namibia are required to have valid travel documents, national identity cards and would be expected to meet their own travelling costs.

They is also an added risk of a 14-day quarantine in Zambia.

“There will also be a mandatory 21-day quarantine upon arrival in Zimbabwe,” reads part of the letter by the Consular Department.