As heavy rain began pouring over Cape Town, the City of Cape Town, in collaboration with the Department of Home Affairs and the Zimbabwean Consulate, started relocating Zimbabwean nationals who had gathered in large numbers outside the Consulate in District Six.
As relentless rain lashed Cape Town on Sunday, hundreds of Zimbabwean nationals, many with young children wrapped in blankets against the cold, queued near the Zimbabwean Consulate in Kuyper Street hoping to secure a place on buses home before South Africa's planned anti-illegal immigration protests on Tuesday.
Authorities on Sunday raced to relocate families from District Six to the Department of Home Affairs' Epping Repatriation Centre, where officials processed voluntary departures while buses bound for the Beitbridge border crossing departed throughout the afternoon.
The exodus comes amid growing anxiety ahead of nationwide demonstrations scheduled for Tuesday, with government deploying police to prevent violence after weeks of escalating anti-immigrant rhetoric.
South African authorities are processing thousands of Zimbabwean nationals for voluntary repatriation and deportation following rising tensions and fears surrounding anti-immigrant demonstrations. In Cape Town, operations were relocated to the Epping Repatriation Centre to securely process migrants before transporting them via the Beitbridge Border Post.
