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Home Affairs disappointed by low number of people arriving at Lebombo Border for repatriation

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The Home Affairs Department has expressed disappointment at the number of people who have been arriving at the Lebombo Border Post to be repatriated after being trapped in neighbouring Mozambique due to the national lockdown.

Almost 300 South Africans have expressed their desire to be repatriated, but only 90 have been processed since Friday.

In the video below, South Africans repatriated from Mozambique complained over the poor quarantine site they were placed at:

Home Affairs Director of Ports of Entry Stephen van Neel says South Africans wishing to return home through the border post have until Sunday to do so.

“The arrangements we made, but unfortunately, we didn’t get the numbers. You know about 300 maybe South Africans that are currently in Mozambique, but yesterday (Friday) we only had about 70 people who rushed to the border.  Today, for now, we have about 20 people. So it still remains open until tomorrow and we hope that the remaining people will come back. This is one of the challenges because we develop these databases as well as list of people to come back into the country because we have to arrange quantities for them, but then we found that those who were interested in coming back all of a sudden are not arriving at the port of entry.”

Malawian repatriates from SA 

In early June, it was reported that over nine buses ferrying Malawian repatriates from South Africa, were stranded in no man’s land after crossing into the Mozambican side at the border between Mozambique and Malawi.

Authorities in Malawi were reported to not have given clarity or the go-ahead on whether the repatriates should be let free to join their families or get tested and quarantined first.

The Malawian government had sent four buses to South Africa to evacuate stranded Malawian nationals because of the lockdown.

The move was in response to an outcry from many Malawians living in South Africa who have been suffering since the country started a lockdown in an effort to reduce the spread of COVID-19.

Reports also stated that several of these people escaped from the quarantine site.

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