Paul Nyathi|South African Home Affairs Minister, Dr. Aaron Motsoaledi says that officials in his department are facilitating the deportation of 574 Zimbabwean nationals being held at the Lindela repatriation centre.

This follows the deportation of 94 Lesotho nationals from the centre near Johannesburg on Thursday morning.

The department is hastening the deportations after 37 people escaped from the centre on Sunday. The escape was as a result of an internal war between the security guards and their employer which is a private company contracted to run the centre.

The disputes between the guards and their employer resulted in the guards knocking off 3 hours earlier than they were supposed to. This then gave an opportunity to the 37 illegal immigrants to escape.

Zimbabweans and Lesotho nationals have been chosen because they constitute the largest number of people there. Of the 1,500 people at the centre, 574 are Zimbabweans.

Mozambicans constitute the third largest group so they will be next in the list after Zimbabweans have been deported. All the detained illegal immigrants have been screened for Covid-19 and the only two who exhibited high temperatures were tested and found to be negative.

South Africa normally just dumps the deported Zimbabweans at the Zimbabwean side of the Beitbridge Border Post where they are received by local police and the Department of Social Welfare.

However with the out break of the Coronavirus a slightly different arrangement which might need the inclusion of the Ministry of Health and Child Care from Zimbabwe and the Zimbabwean Embassy In South Africa.

However, on enquiry, an official at the Zimbabwean Embassy said that they were not aware of the intended deportations.

The Beitbridge town Coronavirus task team has previously indicated that it does not have the capacity to handle the huge number of returning Zimbabweans expected soon from South Africa. The extra 600 of the deported people will certainly have a huge impact on the task force.