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Thandeka Moyo Court Reporter
THIRTEEN South Africa-bound Ugandans were yesterday deported back to their country after they entered Zimbabwe illegally. The men and women aged between 19 and 40 years gained entry into Zimbabwe from Zambia without proper immigration clearence. They appeared before Bulawayo magistrate Eveline Mashavakure and pleaded guilty to contravening a section of the Immigration Act.

Magistrate Mashavakure sentenced them to three months’ imprisonment, wholly suspended for five years on condition that in the coming period you will not commit a similar crime.

“You will also be deported back to your country,” she said.

Prosecuting, Nkosiyabo Sibanda said the 13 ran out of luck when detectives got a tip off that they had boarded a Toyota Quantum heading to South Africa.

“On April 30, detectives received a tip off at around 9PM that the 13 were living in the country illegally. They had entered Zimbabwe via the Victoria Falls border though they did not apply for the visitor’s permit or present themselves to stamp their Ugandan passports.”

He said when detectives intercepted their vehicle at the 24km peg along the Bulawayo-Beitbridge Road, they all failed to produce documentation that they were in the country legally and they were arrested.