Opara UgonnaBy Ugonna Opara
Over 89 000 Zimbabweans have been arrested and deported from South Africa for entering or staying in that country without proper documentation.
Former president of Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), Peter Mutasa, explained that the development could not have happened had Zimbabwe labour unions, civic society groups, and human rights activists’ warnings to South Africa about Zimbabwe’s economic and political crisis had not been ignored.
In his words, “thousands of Zimbabweans flock into neighbouring South Africa and Botswana in search of jobs and better lives.
“We have been talking about these issues as labour, as human rights activists that SADC and AU have to take a progressive and practical position on Zimbabwe crisis, we have got a crisis. SADC has to resolve this crisis before it degenerates and now it has degenerated.
“So, SADC, South Africa and other Africa countries have to agree that Zimbabwe has got crisis.
“This problem has now caused humanitarian crisis. It is not enough for South Africans to just push Zimbabweans back where they cannot get livelihoods and to where they can starve, 61 percent in here are food insecure so all those people are looking for food”, he added.
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