Zimbabwe’s abject living conditions are prompting hundreds of Zimbabweans to flee across the border every day in search of a job or something to eat. The border between Zimbabwe and South Africa is littered with soft drink bottles and food scraps.

Despite the recent wave of violence carried out by South Africans on foreign nationals - mainly from Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Somalia - Nhamo Nykadzino (25) is determined to be in South Africa to escape hunger and violence.
He is one of the many Zimbabweans escaping their country every day.
Nyikadzino says. “Things are not working out. I've been trying to make ends meet but lately things couldn't work out. So I've got to cross to other side.”

Aware of the attacks
He adds that he was aware of the recent xenophobia attack on foreign nationals but was adamant: “The difference is the same. If I stay in Zimbabwe I we’ll die of hunger… I prefer to go to South Africa and see for my self the conditions.”

Thousands of Zimbabweans, including women and children, are now risking the perilous border crossing in a desperate bid to flee a country that has descended into political and economic chaos over the past seven years.

Another cross border, Themba Sibanda from Bulayayo – the country’s second largest Zimbabwe city - says: “ My wife is expecting a baby in the next three month so I’ve to come down south to do shoping for the baby.”

The tall, vivacious man sits close to his wares bundled in plastic papers. And he smiles before he continues: “There is nothing in Zimbabwean shops to prepare for my baby… I mean nothing at all.”

Patience
The queues at the immigration is long and most of these people are patient and determined to see their perceived land of “Canan”, a land of Gold and honey.

Beauty Moyo (35) glances at the floor and, barely audibly, explains she was crossing to South Africa to access access here HIV Anti-Retrovial Virus drugs (ARVs).

She explains that she crosses every month to get her monthly tablets. She claims that the ARVs were in short supply in Zimbabwe.

Meanwhile, Peter Ndaneta (40) who entered South Africa South Africa legally last month, describe her predicament.

"In Zimbabwe, we're dying of hunger. I used to drive taxis, but now there are no jobs and no money there. I want to stay here in South Africa, but it is very difficult to get a job".

Border is no deterrent
No-one is sure how many Zimbabweans are in South Africa, but the estimates range between two and three million

A farmer in the Limpopo province in South Africa, Betty Kruger - close to the border says: "The border fence is no deterrent.”

"These Zimbabweans are hungry, destitute and driven to crime. We find a lot of them staying on local farms temporarily, but others move southwards, trying to reach the big cities: Johannesburg and Pretoria

Like many Zimbabweans, Ndaneta is aware of a wave of violence carried out by South Africans in many parts of the country but insists it was better to be in South Africa than his mother’s land.
 
62 people killed
The attack on foreigners killed at least 62 people, injured at least 670, and destroyed the shelters of tens of thousands who became homeless and displaced, and who took shelter mainly in or near police stations. Immigrants were beaten, shot at, stabbed, raped and burnt as the groups rampaged through squatter camps and townships looking for victims. At one stage, they reached the city's central business district, and more than 300 people were arrested.

Protesters claim the estimated five million illegal immigrants in South Africa are taking their jobs, get preferential housing, force down wages and commit crime. But police say the violence is just criminality and thuggery.

As long as the political and economic situation in Zimbabwe remains as it is South Africa is expected to see more of desperate Zimbabweans.