TOUGH TIMES FOR MTHWAKAZIANS

Today while scrolling through the sites carrying news from my native land I came across an article that made me weep and cry for almost the whole entire session as I read through it. Not only was I reminded of the way and conditions I once lived under, but also the desperation and the vulnerability of our women and children under such circumstances really breaks me down. In these civilised times, it is unacceptable for women and children to undergo the trauma that this article carries. I have pasted it below for everyone to feel free and read.

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/africa/-/1066/479764/-/148qx9iz/-/index.html
Zimbabweans wait to withdraw cash outside the Central African Building Society bank in the capital Harare. Zimbabwe is facing a major crisis amid signs that a power-sharing deal may collapse. Photo/REUTERS

By KITSEPILE NYATHI NATION Correspondent Message


Posted Sunday, October 12 2008 at 18:46
In Summary

It’s a major crush at border as many Zimbabweans try to cheat their way into South Africa with fake pay slips
Others bribe South African police officers who set up roadblocks on the highway to hunt for Zimbabwean illegal immigrants.

HARARE, Sunday

Park station in downtown Johannesburg, South Africa teems with Zimbabweans arriving in the land of plenty in rattled buses that dramatise the escalating economic crisis back home.

The majority of the arrivals have harrowing tales to tell and complain that the decade old economic problems in Zimbabwe are dehumanising them.

Mrs Nancy Hadebe, a primary teacher with 15 years experience says she braved the crocodile infested waters of the Limpopo River because she had no hope of obtaining a Zimbabwean passport.

An ordinary passport can take up to five years to be processed because the government does not have foreign currency to buy materials used in the production of the documents.

“I was deported from South Africa last week after police raided our apartment in the middle of the night,” she said. “We were dumped in Beitbridge but I could not go home because of the desperate situation back there.”

She joined others

So she joined others who were crossing the river that separates Zimbabwe and South Africa and they escaped detection by army patrols.

To get to Johannesburg, they bribed police officers who set up roadblocks on the highway to hunt for Zimbabwean illegal immigrants.

Mrs Hadebe is among the unlucky thousands who get arrested throughout South Africa everyday for entering that country illegally and are immediately returned home.

The International Immigration Organisation (IOM) which has set up a reception centre to receive the deportees says the majority of them quickly find their way back to South Africa through undesignated entry points.

“I make it a point that I carry 100 rands with me where ever I go to pay the police if I am unfortunate to get arrested,” says Mr George Mkhwananzi who has lived as an illegal immigrant in Johannesburg for the past 10 years.

At Beitbridge border post, the busiest entry point in Southern Africa that operates around the clock, queues snake out of the buildings on both the Zimbabwean and South African sides.

Immigration officials complain that the traffic is increasing at an alarming rate and that Zimbabweans are resorting to desperate measures to try and beat the tough South African visa requirements.

The most common is the use of fake pay slips for civil servants as Zimbabwean government employees do not need visas to visit South Africa.

Ordinary Zimbabweans must have 2,000 rand of travellers’ cheques and proof that they will have accommodation in the neighbouring country to obtain a three month visa.

“I know you people from Bulawayo forge pays lips and I am not going to give you a visa,” shouted a South African immigration official as he handed back middle aged Zimbabwean woman her passport.

The woman began crying like a baby telling the disinterested officials that her sick husband in Johannesburg needed her by his side.