By A Correspondent- The South African government has deported 3 200 Zimbabweans since the beginning of the year for illegally staying in that country.

Between January and June this year the statistics show that3 203, Zimbabweans were deported from South Africa by road.

In addition, an average of 9 000 are rounded up for various immigration offences and deported via Beitbridge annually.

Since the beginning of the Covid19 pandemic, the deportees and returnees are being processed at the Beitbridge Quarantine, Isolation and Transit Centre.

So far, over 18 000 Zimbabweans, among them, deportees from Eswatini, Lesotho and South Africa have passed through the centre between March 2020 and June 2021.

Meanwhile, the Provincial Social Development Officer Mr Criswell Nyakudya said the Government was now gradually re-opening quarantine and isolation centres to accommodate deportees and Zimbabwean returnees coming in through Beitbridge and Plumtree border posts.

The centres had been closed as the country moved into Covid19 lockdown level 2.

Mr Nyakudya said prior to the latest development, they had left only the Beitbridge and Esigodini quarantine centres open.

“We will open the various quarantine centres in the country depending on the demand for space,” he said.