South Africa has put mechanisms in place to deport scores of Zimbabweans who have failed to regularise their stay in the country during the recent documentation exercise.

The Zimbabwean assistant regional immigration manager at Beit Bridge Border Post, Mrs Tamari Shadaya, told Limpopo Mirror that they had since received a memo from their South African counterparts on the latest move.

“According to the document, which we got on Thursday (06/10), the deportations were to commence with immediate effect,” she said. Shadaya said the deportations targeted undocumented Zimbabweans illegally staying in South Africa and border jumpers, who would have been intercepted while trying to cross the border illegally.

She said they had since notified relevant local stakeholders, including the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) about the imminent deportations.

Shadaya said a meeting involving Zimbabwean and South African immigration officials and other key stakeholders from the two countries would be held soon in Beit Bridge. “We are meeting our South African counterparts soon on how the deportations will be implemented. The issues that we will discuss include the anticipated volumes of the deportees and how they will be handled.

“We would like to believe that there will a huge influx of undocumented Zimbabweans coming in through Beit Bridge Border Post and therefore the issue of inadequate personnel to vet the deportees will certainly be another challenge for us,” she said.

Shadaya said on the issue of infrastructure, IOM would temporarily accommodate the deportees at its reception and support centre in the border town, from which they will also be offered food and transport to proceed to their respective homes.

South Africa suspended the deportation of undocumented Zimbabweans in May 2009 and later introduced a special dispensation during which Zimbabweans were given an opportunity to regularise their stay in the neighbouring country by applying for work, business and study permits.

South Africa officially completed the process of taking applications on 31 December last year. More than 275 000 Zimbabweans met the December 2010 deadline set by this country, by which time they had to apply to have their stay in the country regularized.

The South African government embarked on the process of documenting Zimbabweans illegally staying in that country following full consultation with the Zimbabwean authorities.

In April 2009, South Africa announced a moratorium on the deportation of Zimbabweans and granted them a special dispensation for one year, so that they could get documents from Zimbabwean officials based in South Africa. The documentation process was, however, later extended to 31 July, following a special request from the Zimbabwean government, largely due to a backlog in the processing of passports by Zim authorities.

The dispensation was to allow Zimbabweans to enter and remain in South Africa without legal and proper documents and through this dispensation, they were not subjected to deportation.