LATEST: SA deports 10000 Zim immigrants

Johannesburg: Over 10 000 Zimbabweans have been deported from South Africa since last year, with the country’s neighbour north of the Limpopo River spending R33 million every month on extraditing illegal immigrants.

Zimbabweans constitute the second largest group of immigrants staying illegally in South Africa, which is Africa’s most advanced economy.

It is estimated that over two million Zimbabweans are staying in South Africa, the majority of them without the requisite documentation to support their stay. Most Zimbabweans are in South Africa to escape an economic meltdown in their home country, where job losses are a daily occurrence.

Tension has been building up in the Rainbow Nation, as South Africa is popularly known, as thousands of its citizens demand jobs.

Since last year, 10 433 Zimbabweans have been deported. Mozambicans form the largest portion of the deportees at 11 534, while Lesotho and Malawi contributed 6 045 and 3 257 deportations, respectively. Financial Gazette