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Zimbabweans at Phoenix holding camp in Durban north register with a Zimbabwe consulate official to be repatriated to ZImbabwe after the xenophobic attacks in South Africa

By Mashudu Netsianda in Beitbridge
THE Zimbabwean Embassy has completed the documentation of the last group of displaced xenophobia victims and they are expected to leave Durban today.

Isaac Moyo, Zimbabwe’s Ambassador to South Africa yesterday told The Chronicle in a telephone interview that they were now waiting for the neighbouring country’s Home Affairs Department to complete the outstanding paper work.

“As Zimbabwe Embassy, we have completed documenting our people who volunteered to be repatriated. The South African Home Affairs is now in the process of concluding its clearance process and we are now making arrangements to evacuate the last group and we expect them to leave for Beitbridge today (yesterday) or tomorrow (today),” said Moyo.

“We also have a few cases being reported in Johannesburg but as of now no displaced Zimbabweans have volunteered to be repatriated,” he said.

The first group of 555 Zimbabweans who fled xenophobic attacks in Durban, South Africa arrived in Beitbridge on Monday. They left for their respective homes on Tuesday night.

The highest number of the returnees was from Harare and Zaka. The group comprising 171 females, 285 male and 99 children received food hampers, soap, sanitary pads and blankets donated by the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority.

The victims survived brutal attacks that have rocked Durban and parts of Johannesburg.

Yesterday there was a meeting at the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) centre to re-strategise amid concerns over delays by South African border authorities in clearing the xenophobia victims.

The first group on Monday endured close to four hours of unnecessary delays at the hands of South African authorities.

The principal immigration officer in Beitbridge, Innocent Hamandishe said they were exploring ways of partnering with their South African counterparts to speed up the process.

“We are looking at ways of speeding up the process of clearing our people as they arrive. We intend to send our officers to help in clearing the group that is coming,” said Hamandishe.

He said in the first group, a South African woman who had accompanied her husband fleeing from the attacks, was forced to return to her country together with her daughter because she had no travel documents.

Matabeleland South provincial social welfare officer Totamirepi Tirivavi said more mental health personnel and nurses would be deployed at the centre to beef up the staff.

“We also had cases of several victims who suffered from pneumonia due to the unhealthy conditions at South African camps as well as abdominal discomfort and we have requested for more nurses to come to the centre to render assistance to the new arrivals,” said Tirivavi.

During the meeting, concerns were also raised over discrepancies in the manner data was captured on the number of returnees.

IOM, immigration and the police, who are all dealing with the vetting and registration of returnees, presented conflicting figures of the repatriated victims.

The director of the Civil Protection Unit Madzudzo Pawadyira said the government would continue to offer transport to ferry the victims to their homes. Other organisations that have chipped in with assistance include Unicef, Red Cross, Doctors without Borders (MSF) and IOM.

A total of 1,515 Zimbabweans in Durban volunteered to be repatriated in the wake of the attacks that started in the coastal city before spreading to Johannesburg.