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Thupeyo Muleya, Beitbridge Bureau
South Africa on Wednesday deported 10 Zimbabweans who completed serving their sentences at correctional facilities around Limpopo province.

The group arrived in police vans, along with 60 others who had been rounded up for violating immigration laws in the neighbouring country.

The deportations are part of the South Africans’ plans to decongest prisons and migrants holding centres.

According to the Zimbabwe Consulate in Johannesburg, the ex-convicts had been arrested for robbery, house breaking and shoplifting, among other charges. Last week, seven ex-convicts were deported from Gauteng province along with 213 others who had been raided for violating Pretoria’s immigration laws.

Zimbabwe’s Consul-General to Johannesburg Mrs Melody Chaurura said recently that they have not been able to deport people in the last two weeks.

“On average less than 100 people are being sent home from South Africa weekly,” she said.

By the end of the day yesterday, health officials were still screening the group for Covid-19.

Under the lockdown Standard Operational Procedures (SOP), those returnees or deportees who test positive for Covid-19 are put in isolation while those that test negative are sent to their respective homes.