In an apparent response to Mirror’s recent story on Zimbabweans cashing in on VAT receipts at the Beit Bridge border post, the SAPS, in conjunction with Home Affairs officials, launched a blitz on Zimbabweans, mostly VAT dealers and regular cross border transporters attempting to enter the country illegally by using dubious travel documents and unstamped passports.

Police officers and Home Affairs officials were deployed at the entry gate on Friday, thoroughly checking for a corresponding Zimbabwean immigration stamp. Those whose passports had not been stamped were thrown into a waiting truck and detained for several hours before they were subsequently handed over to the Zimbabwean authorities.

When Mirror visited the border on Friday, there were scores of Zimbabweans whose passports were not stamped, including those who were nabbed for trying to enter South Africa illegally without travel documents. Some of the detainees could be seen conducting press-ups under the watching eye of police officers. VAT dealers had also abandoned their traditional spots at the border, after they were swooped upon by police.

A senior SAPS officer, who declined to be named, said: “We have realized that most of the Zimbabwean travellers, especially daily cross-border transport operators plying the Beit Bridge-Musina route and VAT receipt dealers, do not stamp their passports on the Zimbabwean side and that is precisely why we are embarking on this operation. We deny such people entry into South Africa, in line with the requirements of the law, and hand them over to the Zimbabwean authorities.”

A week ago, many VAT dealers told Mirror that they were bribing Home Affairs officials manning the entry gate to enter South Africa without having stamped their passports.

The Beit Bridge Station Commissioner, Sr Col Radzilani, was also part of the team conducting the operation. The Zimbabwean regional immigration manager in charge of the Beit Bridge border post, Mr Charles Gwede, said the ongoing operation on the South African side was a routine exercise aimed at flushing out illegal immigrants. "It is a requirement for every person departing from Zimbabwe to South Africa to have his or her travel document stamped by our immigration officials, failure of which they would be contravening a section of the Immigration Act."

A local regular cross-border driver, who only identified himself as Charles, said that he had been crossing into South Africa through Beit Bridge for the past three years, either with an unstamped passport or no travel documents at all. “I eke out a living through daily cross-border business, and so I can’t afford to have my passport stamped every day. My fear is that the pages will fill up quickly, and thereafter there will be no business for me. I therefore count on bribing immigration security guards at the gate, so that they allow me to pass using an unstamped passport. Most of them now know me, so at times they allow me to pass even if I don’t have money to offer them,” he said.