It was a normal day at the Lebombo Border Post, which divides South Africa and Mozambique in Komatipoort, Mpumalanga, on Thursday. This comes as Mozambican citizens continue to cross the border between the two nations.
Deputy Police Minister Cassel Mathale, along with police leadership in the province, visited the Lebombo Border Post in response to recent anti-immigration demonstrations throughout the country.
The protesters have called for undocumented foreign nationals to exit the nation.
The Border Management Authority (BMA) has also established a repatriation centre at Lebombo to assist the processing of foreign nationals leaving the country.
Despite the recent anti-immigration protests in the country, some Mozambican nationals have not been deterred from making their way to South Africa. One of them is Armando Sambo, who says he is currently residing in Nelspruit.
Sambo expressed mixed feelings about the recent anti-immigration protests in the country.
“I am not happy with the protests. But I think they are also valid because some of us come in without papers and they do crime. They are ruining things for some of those who are not doing bad things.”
The Deputy Police Minister says that different authorities at the border have collaborated to monitor and act against those attempting to cross without valid documentation.
“We’re going to intensify the work that we have been doing around illegal undocumented foreign nationals. But what we have been doing have not been enough because it has even triggered response of South Africans to march to demand government to do more and their message was very clear on the 30th.”
Meanwhile, the Border Management Authority’s Regional Commander of the Eastern Region Ndivhuwo Luvhimbi says thousands of foreign nationals have been repatriated through this border since last weekend.
“Starting from Saturday, we had the highest number of Mozambican nationals going out of the country. On Sunday, the arrivals were higher than the departures. On Monday, we had some 20,000, on Tuesday we had 14,000, on Wednesday we had 14,000 aggregated and then in terms of the repatriation, on the 30th of June, we repatriated around 1083 Mozambican nationals and then we also repatriated around 67 Malawian nationals through this particular port of entry. This morning at Kilometer Seven, we activated it and then we processed around 257 people.”
Luvhimbi says the newly established repatriation centre at Lebombo remains open to process buses carrying foreign nationals departing for their home countries.
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