Zimbabweans in South Africa Also Want To Be Repatriated

CAPE TOWN, WESTERN CAPE— A Zimbabwean citizen living in Gugulethu, Spray Vandai, said that he and hundreds of foreign nationals requested urgent repatriation from South Africa before an impending anti-migrant deadline. He spoke as more than 300 people sought emergency refuge at the Zimbabwean consulate building grounds in Cape Town after fleeing community threats and violent attacks.

According to News24, Vandai spoke at the consulate grounds in Cape Town in June 2026, where displaced families stacked luggage opposite Fawley Terrace Park. Vandai detailed the escalating security fears and said that most individuals received explicit warnings to vacate their suburban houses before conditions deteriorated and it became too late. Vandai and other Zimbabweans followed the footsteps of Malawians who have been processed for repatriation.

Spray Vandai requests urgent repatriation

Vandai said his compatriots preferred to return home to ensure their safety. He said that people were trying to go back home because it was better to be safe than sorry. The Gugulethu resident said that the local situation became unbearable following recent xenophobic unrest in Western Cape locations like Kraaifontein and Mossel Bay.

Read also

Home Affairs says no Malawian nationals at Sherwood Hall are linked to crime, South Africans debate

Vandai added that while independent relief groups provided immediate aid to families at the site, the total number of people seeking help increased from 75 on Wednesday night to 276 by Thursday afternoon. He predicted that the entire process would become chaotic as more citizens arrived from Philippi, Khayelitsha, and Joe Slovo ahead of the June 30 deadline. He noted that mothers with babies on their backs kept watch while dozens of children played safely nearby.

Briefly News speaks to an expert

Professor Loren Landau, the South African Research Chair in Human Mobility and the Politics of Difference at the African Centre for Migration & Society at Wits University, weighed in on the repatriation.

While these are not legally deportations, they are akin to what the US has started calling 'self-deportation'. A kind of 'constructive dismissal' if you will," he told Briefly News.

Nigerians to be repatriated

In a related article, Briefly News reported that the Nigerian government announced plans to repatriate its citizens. This was after anti-illegal immigration tension flared up in the country.

Source: Briefly News