Thousands of Zimbabwe nationals were at the Epping Home Affairs office in a rush to get repatriated out of the country.
Image: Ayanda Ndamane/ ANA Studios
Foreign nationals who voluntarily agreed to be repatriated from Cape Town to the Beitbridge border have expressed dismay after learning they would be declared undesirable and barred from re-entering South Africa for up to five years.
Since Sunday, the Department of Home Affairs office in Epping has served as the processing centre for hundreds of Zimbabwean nationals who fled from various parts of the Western Cape amid fears of violence ahead of Tuesday's planned nationwide anti-immigration protests.
The voluntary departures come despite repeated assurances from President Cyril Ramaphosa and Acting Police Minister Firoz Cachalia that while peaceful protest is protected under the Constitution, intimidation, vigilantism and attacks on foreign nationals would not be tolerated.
The City has activated area-based Joint Operations Centres. Operations Tuesday will be coordinated by the Disaster Coordinating Team (DCT) in Goodwood.
Key priorities include preventing violence and ensuring visible and coordinated response to any incident of intimidation, looting or violence.
On Sunday, three buses transported 231 people from Cape Town to Limpopo for onward processing and repatriation.
Chrispen Bhebhe, 33, who spent Sunday night sleeping outside the Home Affairs office with his wife, said he had hoped to return to South Africa after visiting Zimbabwe but was shocked to learn he would face a lengthy re-entry ban.
"I am told they are now banning us for five years, so I do not know how we will come back. There is nothing waiting for us in Zimbabwe. I left because I could not get a job," he said.
Bhebhe arrived in Epping from Robertson on Tuesday, where he had been working as a farm labourer for the past five months.
"Before that I worked on a farm in Limpopo. I arrived in South Africa in 2015. I was building a house in Robertson and sending money home to support my child, who lives with her grandmother. But we had to leave because we feared for our lives.
"Everywhere people were telling us to go home and they even went to the farm where we were working," he said.
Temporary tents have been erected at the Epping Home Affairs office as thousands of foreign nationals flock in from around the Western Cape.
Image: Ayanda Ndamane/ ANA Studios
Gibson Nyamukwengu, 43, who worked as a bus driver in Worcester for seven years, said he also hoped to return to South Africa.
"I have all my papers and my documents are up to date. I am here because it does not matter to these people whether you are documented or not. I knew these guys were going to beat you regardless," he said.
Nyamukwengu said he had been unable to work for the past three months after suffering a stroke.
"I was in hospital for two months and I am supposed to return in September for my medication, but I do not know what I am going to do now.
"Here I am not being helped. I slept outside in the courtyard with women and children and got soaked by the rain. There was no humanity."
The City, working with the Department of Home Affairs, has relocated Zimbabwean nationals who had been camped outside the Zimbabwean Consulate in District Six since last week to the Epping processing centre.
Department of Home Affairs spokesperson Luthando Mavuso said the period for which a person is declared undesirable depends on how long they have been in the country illegally.
"All we can do as Home Affairs is declare people undesirable. It is the responsibility of consulates and embassies to issue them with travel documents," he said.
Mavuso said the department had asked foreign missions to direct citizens seeking voluntary repatriation to the temporary repatriation centre in Musina.
"Across the country we have to process people who wish to leave. Part of that process is ensuring that once a person is instructed to leave, we escort them and ensure they cross the border.
"It is the responsibility of the consulates to arrange transport for their citizens to the processing centre before departure."
On Sunday three buses departed the epping home Affairs centre ferrying 231 people to the Beitbridge Border Post in Limpopo.
Image: Ayanda Ndamane/ ANA Studios
Gift of the Givers spokesperson Ali Sablay said the organisation had provided meals to about 1200 people, including 252 children, between Sunday and Monday morning.
"There was some confusion after it was announced that those outside the consulate would be brought here for processing before being transported. The message spread to other parts of the province, which is why we are seeing people arriving from Robertson and other areas of the Western Cape.
"We are also seeing Malawians and Mozambicans hoping they can be processed, receive their documents and board the buses."
Sablay said the organisation was erecting three temporary tents at the Home Affairs offices.
"They were exposed to severe weather outside the consulate and hundreds slept outdoors again last night. Some have become ill."
Western Cape Premier Alan Winde warned that anyone breaking the law during the protests would face arrest and prosecution.
"We fully respect every resident's constitutional right to protest. However, this right must always be exercised peacefully and within the bounds of the law. I call on all residents to reject violence in all its forms. There is no justification for violence under any circumstances. This is not who we are as South Africans."
Winde and members of the Western Cape Cabinet attended a Joint Operations Centre meeting hosted by the Provincial Disaster Management Centre with representatives from municipalities, the South African Police Service and the South African National Defence Force to coordinate the province's response.
Cape Times