South Africa’s Border Management Authority (MBA) has reportedly intensified operations to block Zimbabwean parents based in the neighbouring country from allegedly using unlawful methods to get their children into the country during the school holidays and festive season.
Reports from South African media claim the use of unlawful methods to get unaccompanied children from Zimbabwe into the country has become widespread.
According to the BMA, Zimbabwean children entering South Africa with a parent, both parents or a guardian, only need their passports to cross the border.
However, unaccompanied children entering South Africa need to carry passports with a host of other documents, such as copies of their birth certificates, parental consent letters, copies of both parents’ passports and death certificates in the case of a deceased parent.
GroundUp reported that for Zimbabwean parents living in South Africa, especially those on a Zimbabwean Exemption Permit (ZEP), getting all the documents in order can be a huge challenge.
As a result, parents often pay bus companies an extra fee to “smuggle” the children over the border.
Just before reaching the border, children, including babies, are removed from buses and carried across the border by runners who meet buses on the other side.
South African border officials are not accepting affidavits commissioned by ZEP holders in South Africa unless they are commissioned in a court of law.
On 3 December, the BMA claimed it had intercepted 42 buses coming from Zimbabwe between 2 and 3 December.
The BMA said among the passengers on the buses were 443 unaccompanied children under the age of eight.
The Zimbabwean Ministry of Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage dismissed the claims, saying “no such incident occurred” and there was no record of buses being intercepted and children being handed back to Zimbabwean authorities.
But the BMA maintained in a 6 December statement that 443 unaccompanied children were stopped from entering South Africa.
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