By Rex Mphisa
SOME Zimbabweans wishing to return home from South Africa are stranded outside Mankweng Police Station near Polokwane in Limpopo because of a communication breakdown between the transporters and Government.
According the South African Broadcasting Corporation monitored at Beitbridge he transporters some of whom loaded goods three weeks ago want payment before starting the journey.
Mankweng is a large township located in the Limpopo province of South Africa, approximately 27 kilometers east of Polokwane on the R71 road.
Some Zimbabweans gathered there in flight of hostilities before the March and March deadline when Zimbabweans and other foreigners were ejected from SA.
“They have appealed to the Zimbabwean government to provide transport to take them home,” a reporter with the SABC said on that country’s national television seen by Ziyah News Network.
The reporter showed images of household properties heaped on the side of the road they said partially blocked a road.
“There are also goods and luggage belonging to Zimbabweans who were repatriated in July,” the reporter said.
“One of the people who have been waiting outside the Mankweng Police Station, Herbert Masimba, is appealing to the Zimbabwean government to also pay for transport to take their belongings home,” the reporter said.
“The people here (migrant workers) said they want the Zimbabwean government to look for truckers who are willing to take these goods from here to Zimbabwe. Once they drop off these goods, the government should pay them and give them a binding contract stating that they will be paid once they have completed the work. That is what they need the trucks for now. Their government has promised that buses will still be coming. They are compiling a list of people who want to be repatriated back home.”
Nearly 100 000 Zimbabweans have left South Africa and returned home following a surge in anti-immigrant pressure, threats, and an unofficial “self-deportation” deadline set by fringe groups.
Zimbabweans started leaving that country in June in fear of protests and threats from groups demanding undocumented foreigners leave.
Many migrants faced harassment, forced evictions, loss of jobs, and threats of physical harm by anti-migrant groups blamed foreign nationals for local crime and job shortages.