Beneath the Surface, Lies the Hidden Struggles of Zim’s Daily Border Crossers

In a desperate bid to escape Zimbabwe’s economic woes, thousands of people, including Fadzai Musindo, a 43-year-old mother of three, risk life and limb to cross into South Africa daily.
Despite the dangers, Musindo, a “runner” who carries goods across the border for a living, says she has no choice but to take the risk.
“I need to work as much as I can because in January my children need to go back to school.
“The soldiers might try to stop people, but what can I do? This is the only way I can use,” Musindo explained.
Musindo’s journey begins at the Beitbridge border post, one of Africa’s busiest, where she joins thousands of others waiting to cross into South Africa.
But with the border operation intensifying, Musindo and others like her are forced to take the more dangerous informal route, crossing the Limpopo River with the help of smugglers known as “guma-gumas.”
According to Tafadzwa Muguti, the secretary for presidential affairs and devolution, the Zimbabwean government has launched a crackdown on smugglers and illicit goods, but the operation has caused lengthy delays at the border, frustrating travelers.
Meanwhile, the South African Border Management Authority (BMA) has deported and arrested over 410,000 people at different sites since a new coalition government came to power in May last year. But experts warn that the fast-track removals of irregular migrants could create other problems.
“Part of the BMA’s mandate is to ensure people move out of South Africa quickly, and when they are deported quickly, they don’t have access to social workers or lawyers, families get separated, and it causes more distress,” said Loren Landau, a professor at the African Centre for Migration and Society at the University of Witwatersrand.
As the South African army patrols the border, Musindo and others like her continue to take the risk, driven by desperation and the need to survive. However, with the xenophobic backlash and crime pervasive in post-apartheid South Africa, the journey is fraught with danger.
“A long-term solution depends on what the problem is and where it is, the issue is not at the border, the problem is in the cities, in townships that have been overtaken by criminal gangs, and addressing that issue is key,” Landau said.
As the year begins, new groups of Zimbabweans are considering making the perilous journey to South Africa, driven by the hope of a better life. But for Musindo and others like her, the journey is a daily reality, one that they undertake with trepidation, but also with determination to survive.
-Al Jazeera