The Ministry of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services has revealed that 527 deportees have arrived in Beitbridge at around 1500 hours.
This comes after South Africa’s Minister of Home Affairs Aaron Motsoaledi’s decision to repatriate a large group of detainees from the Lindela centre this week.
Motsoaledi ordered the repatriations in response to an escape at the facility earlier this month.
Reports emerging claim that the offenders have been given a five-year ban on travel to South Africa.
According to the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services, Nick Mangwana ,129 of the returnees from South Africa are ex-convicts.
“11 buses with 527 deportees have arrived in Beitbridge at around 1500 hours, 129 are ex- convicts.
“Mash East has 2 people, Mash Central 4, Mash West 5, Bulawayo 101, Masvingo 100, Midlands 41, Manicaland 69, Mat North 54 and Mat South 64 and Harare 87. 7 of the 527 are females.
“Whatever else happened in SA and en route to Zimbabwe, we are going to apply our measures here to ensure that we can detect and deal with the effect of what happened in SA,” he said.
He added “Govt takes the security of citizens seriously. As the Ministry of Healthand Childcare is doing Rapid Diagnostic tests for Covid19Zim, the Zimbabwe Republic Police and other security agencies are vetting ex-convicts to see if any are on their wanted lists before despatch their respective provinces.”
More to follow.