Hundreds of fleeing Zimbabweans camp outside consulate in Cape Town

Hundreds of Zimbabwean nationals are sleeping outside the Zimbabwean consulate in Cape Town, pleading for the government to help them get back home.

On Thursday, piles of large suitcases and bags wrapped in plastic were strewn on the pavements around the office. People were huddled in groups with blankets and jackets to keep warm. On Wednesday night, the group, including women and children, slept outside.

“I want to go to Zimbabwe because of xenophobia,” says Marian Gwanyira, who came from Dunoon. Holding her six-month-old baby, she says that she was threatened by her neighbours. They told her “Abahambe”, which means “They must leave”.

She came to South Africa in 2024 with her husband because “in Zimbabwe, there’s no jobs”, she says.

Gwanyira will have to sleep on the pavement with her baby and husband again on Thursday night.

“I don’t want to be undocumented,” says Spray Vandai, who has lived in Gugulethu for four years.

Vandai, who is from Harare, says he has gone to the Department of Home Affairs several times to get his expired asylum papers reinstated. But each time, he was turned away.

He says about 300 people to date have come to the consulate since Wednesday, pleading for the Zimbabwean government to help repatriate them. They fear violence as the 30 June March and March deadline looms.

Vandai has been helping to take down the names and details of those who are asking to leave. He says people have arrived from all over the Western Cape, including Bredasdorp, Hermanus, Mfuleni and Khayelitsha.

Vandai says that he is leaving because he no longer has a job. “Most people are getting fired now because they don’t have the right documentation,” he says.

Foreign nationals across South Africa have been taking up voluntary repatriation due to anti-immigrant violence led by March and March.

In Durban, thousands of immigrants have been camping outside Sherwood Hall. Hundreds of Nigerians have boarded flights from Johannesburg, and hundreds of Malawians have fled the Overberg region in the Western Cape.

Rangano John Chamisa, who took a bus from Bredasdorp early on Thursday, says he is terrified. “If you are not a foreigner, you are fine,” he says.

Chamisa says if a bus doesn’t come to fetch them on Thursday, he will have no choice but to spend another night in the cold.

GroundUp’s attempts to contact the Zimbabwean consulate were unsuccessful. DM