Rights groups blast SA deportations move

HARARE – Human rights groups have reacted angrily to last week’s decision by South Africa to resume deportations of undocumented Zimbabweans, accusing Pretoria of acting in bad faith and betraying the trust of ordinary people who are escaping persecution by President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu (PF) party. (Pictured: A bus full of Zimbabweans drives through the South African border town of Musina)

South Africa announced last Thursday that it would in January 2011 resume deporting undocumented Zimbabweans, ending an 18-month moratorium on deportations of illegal immigrants from its struggling northern neighbour.

The moratorium on deportations was first implemented in April 2009 in an attempt to regulate the stay of Zimbabweans in South Africa, thousands of who continue to flock to their more prosperous neighbour in search for jobs and better living conditions.

Under the special dispensation, Zimbabweans could enter South Africa and work for a total of three months before renewing the temporary permits.

South African government spokesman Themba Maseko said the special dispensation for Zimbabweans would be scrapped on December 31.

The Zimbabwe Exiles Forum (ZEF) described the decision by South Africa as “callous, arbitrary and in violation of the bilateral agreement between South Africa and Zimbabwe that was announced with so much pomp and fan-fare.”

“We could be excused to think that the so-called deal was a scheme designed to hoodwink us as to the real purpose of it: to obtain cheap labour from Zimbabwe before the World Cup,” said ZEF executive director Gabriel Shumba.

South Africa, which has Africa’s most prosperous economy, is home to millions of foreign nationals, many of them living illegally and seeking better opportunities from failed economies like northern neighbour Zimbabwe.

There no exact figures of how many Zimbabwean live in South Africa but estimates put the figure at anything above two million or above a sixth of Zimbabwe’s total population of 12 million people.

Locals often complain that the immigrants steal their jobs or lower working standards by readily accepting below market wages, while also overloading government social services.

An outbreak of xenophobic violence in 2008 left at least 62 foreigners dead and thousands of others displaced, leaving foreign investors unsettled and South Africa’s image as one of the more tolerant countries in the world shattered.

Similar xenophobic attacks broke out soon after the end of the FIFA World Cup ended last July but security forces were this time round quick to move in to quash the violence and protect foreigners.


(2010-09-04/thezimbabwean.co.uk)