By Lesedi Sibiya-Diplomatic Insider 

Strain has begun to occur in the process of repatriating undocumented Malawian nationals due to a new influx of arrivals which has left home affairs officials to be left struggling to maintain order. 

“We have already dispatched about 11 buses that are currently on site, and nine of those buses have already left. We are continuing until such time, whatever time, we may be able to stop. But we’re to push as much as possible to create space for the people who are still coming into the site, who were not part of Sherwood” said Home Affairs KwaZulu-Natal Manager Cyril Mncwabe.

Mncwabe also stated that people are being dropped off outside the site by e-hailing services and other various forms of transportation.

 “Those people we have to also consider assisting. But we thought it’s gonna be important for us to start by clearing the people who were moved from Sherwood who are already on this site” said Mncwabe.

 “The challenge that we will always have is that we are working on a bottomless pit here. Because, as we think that we are currently pushing from the briefing of the minister, he informed you that we’ve processed about 7,000 people already to date. So now we do not know how many people we are still expecting to come in here because there hasn’t been any mechanism of saying at what point do we then have to cut off” Mncwabe continued.

Mncwabe also noted that those that are outside the site must be let in eventually to avoid them sleeping on the streets and also noted that since the registration plan had broken down it has become difficult to track numbers.

All the people that were removed from Sherwood were supposed to be registered and issued a wristband for identification but mentioned that the system had failed on Sunday due to the influx in numbers.

 “Our plan had actually assisted us because at the time we started moving males that had come here, we had over 4,000 males that were here. Before the arrival of everybody that is outside and the people that were being moved away from Sherwood” said Mncwabe.