Some Zimbabweans returnees have regretted ever coming back home saying the lockdown has made their lives unbearable.
They observe that life in quarantine centres is tantamount to torture as they are made to sleep on the floor surviving on small portions of food while the closure of the informal sector has made their post quarantine life even harder.
One returnee who spoke to Zim Morning Post said he was contemplating returning to South Africa as he has now become a burden to his family. He said:
… from the onset, when we came here the conditions at quarantine centres were squalid, after our release we had nowhere to start.In South Africa, I was surviving on carpentry and here the informal sector is shutdown
I have become a burden to my brother who is also married and I’m complicating life for him, so I would rather jump the border and go back to SouthAfrica, kusiri kufa ndekupi. (Risks associated with crossing the border illegally are comparable to the suffering experienced if he chooses to stay.)
Zim Morning Post reports that border jumpers and smugglers are now going through the border, with the help of a well-knit syndicate comprised of officials from ZIMRA, Immigration Department, Zimbabwe and South Africa police and army personnel for a fee not less than R2000.
The publication also reports that those wishing to cross into South Africa enlist the services of truck drivers who provide them with exemption letters to travel to Beitbridge where they then introduce them to agents who have strong connections to officials on either side of the Limpopo.
More: Zim Morning Post