Zimbabwe’s ambassador to South Africa, David Hamadziripi, has appealed to his compatriots who reside in the neighbouring country to respect its laws.
Speaking in Pretoria on Thursday, Hamadziripi said not all Zimbabweans residing in South Africa are involved in criminal activities. He said:
Clearly, it is like in any basket, you will get bad apples. There are those focused on them.
We have thousands of Zimbabweans making positive contributions in South Africa.
We don’t hear much about them. We hear (only) about those who tarnish the name of Zimbabwe.
In our country, we want everybody to respect the law. We also expect them to respect the laws of South Africa.
Hamadziripi said Zimbabwe was worried about the ill-treatment of its citizens by South Africans. He said:
Our route is through the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (Dirco) to raise our concerns.
This is not the right thing to prevent people from accessing public services.
We have raised that with Dirco about such treatment. We wish those practices to stop.
Regarding those who were recently evicted from a building in Johannesburg, we interacted with authorities, including the police.
Our government has provided funding to assist those people who wish to return home.
Where our people need assistance, we have mobilised to help them.
Hamadziripi said he didn’t know how many undocumented and documented Zimbabweans were living in South Africa. | News24