Five Zimbabweans drown trying to enter SA

Five Zimbabweans drown trying to enter SA

ZIMBABWEANS packed on a Beitbridge-bound train being deported from South Africa. It is believed at least 2,5 million Zimbabweans now live in South Africa

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By Staff Reporter

FIVE middle-aged Zimbabwean men have drowned while wading across the crocodile-infested Limpopo River in search of a new El Dorado in South Africa.

The tragedy will likely increase calls on South African President Thabo Mbeki to apply more pressure on his Zimbabwean counterpart Robert Mugabe accused of presiding over the collapse of the economy and waging a violent political war with his opponents.

Four bodies were retrieved from the Limpopo River on Wednesday by South African divers, police said. One body was retrieved early on Tuesday.

This five men, aged between 25 and 30, drowned while trying to cross the river from the Zimbabwean side close to the Beit Bridge border post, said Captain Ailwei Mushavhanamadi.

Polokwane police divers and helicopters searched the area on Wednesday after the Tuesday discovery and recovered the or four other men feared drowned.

They found the bodies surrounded by crocodiles and had to fire shots to scare the reptiles off. The bodies will be returned to Zimbabwe.

It is believed the five were hoping to evade the Beit Bridge border post and enter South Africa illegally across the Limpopo River.

It is estimated that over 2,5 million Zimbabweans now live in South Africa, 90 percent of them illegal immigrants. Most are driven away from Zimbabwe by the harsh political realities, a failing economy and high unemployment.

President Mugabe's opponents have used the high number of illegal immigrants in South Africa to try and convince the South Africans to act to stop Zimbabwe's further decline. But Mbeki refuses to condemn President Mugabe's regime, preferring a policy of "quiet diplomacy" saying he cannot interfere with the internal affairs of another country.
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