South Africa’s Border Struggle: A Constantly Shifting Challenge

MUSINA, South Africa – Perched on weathered wooden rafts, small groups pull themselves and their bundles hand‑over‑hand across a rope strung over the crocodile‑infested Limpopo River.
Minutes later they are in South Africa, having slipped past the Beitbridge border post just a short distance away.
By the time patrol officers notice them, the clandestine migrants have vanished into the thorn scrub.
This brief crossing is one of countless illicit routes along South Africa’s porous frontier with Zimbabwe, where migrants and smugglers routinely evade attempts to seal the busy crossing.
At the official post, streams of people move in the opposite direction, crossing a bridge over the Limpopo into Zimbabwe — part of a tide of foreign nationals fleeing deadly anti‑immigrant protests in South Africa.
Thousands have awaited their journey home inside sprawling white tents that form a repatriation centre 20 kilometres (12 miles) away, receiving foreigners from every corner of the country.
South Africa — the continent’s wealthiest nation — has long acted as a magnet for migrants.
Yet in recent weeks the country has been gripped by protests and violence against foreigners, who are accused of taking jobs and resources.
Police say at least four foreign nationals have been killed in protest‑linked attacks, although some African governments repatriating their citizens suggest the toll is higher.
More than 21,000 people have been housed and processed at the rapidly erected repatriation centre, according to its manager, provincial home affairs chief Albert Matsaung.
“As soon as some leave, more arrive,” he said. “This is a moving target. We will never say we’re closed, we will never say we’re finished.”

‘Easy to cross’

Inside the tents, families sleep shoulder‑to‑shoulder on thin mattresses while children weave between bags packed for the northward journey.
The Zimbabwean couple Munyai Tungamirai and Patricia Nhamo are returning after paying smugglers $20 to ferry them across the river in 2024 in search of work.
“It is risky, but I had to do it to feed my family,” Tungamirai told AFP. “During winter the water recedes, making the crossing easier.”
The 42‑year‑old found employment on an orange farm in Tzaneen, roughly 200 kilometres south of the border.
When anti‑immigrant groups began targeting undocumented workers, his employer urged him to leave, fearing labour inspections and vigilantes going door‑to‑door looking for foreign nationals.
Holding their one‑year‑old son, the couple said they hope to return within a year, this time with valid passports.
Leonard Moyo, in his mid‑twenties, vowed he would never come back.
“Here in South Africa it feels like apartheid; they don’t want us,” said the father of two, who arrived in 2010 and had been working for a construction firm.
“I would rather die in my homeland,” he said, clutching a 14‑inch computer monitor, one of the few possessions he managed to gather before fleeing his home in Limpopo province.

Open borders

For border authorities, the steady outflow of people has done little to ease the long‑term challenge of irregular immigration.
Since June 7, more than 46,000 migrants have been repatriated or deported via Beitbridge, the majority Malawians followed by Zimbabweans, according to Border Management Authority commissioner Michael Masiapato.
Nationally, the number of departures exceeds 60,000, he said, with citizens of Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda and Kenya leaving on government‑organized flights.
Officials acknowledge that many could easily slip back through informal crossing points scattered along the frontier, despite increased patrols and surveillance technology announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa.
“It would be embarrassing if we undertook all these measures only to see people walk back into the country illegally,” said border czar Masiapato.
South Africa has 71 points of entry — 52 land crossings, 10 international airports and nine seaports — yet large sections of its border remain unfenced.
“Without a physical barrier, we cannot guarantee a foolproof halt to illegal immigration,” Masiapato said.
“That is simply the reality, not only for South Africa but for the world at large.”

‘Going home alive’

“I am happy because I am going home alive,” said Veronica Magaya, 32, at the repatriation centre with her youngest child, aged five, strapped to her back.
After her employer gave her two days to leave, the family spent a freezing night in the open without blankets before securing transport to the border.
“I have endured a great deal,” said the housekeeper, who arrived eight years ago on a valid passport that has since expired.
“I do not wish to return to this country even for a single day,” she said.
Away from the camp, on a dusty stretch of the frontier, officers pursued and then detained about a dozen migrants who had been hiding in thick scrub just metres from a military checkpoint.
They had intended to use an illegal crossing even to leave South Africa.
A 26‑year‑old Malawian, who gave his name only as Julius, said this was his first time crossing the river.
“I just want to go home,” he said.

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