South Africa’s Home Affairs Minister says over 70% of the women seeking maternity services in Musina, a border town between Zimbabwe and South Africa, are impoverished Zimbabweans.
Minister Aaron Motsoaledi adds that his government is cracking down on illegal immigration and that Zimbabwean security officers are taking bribes from desperate undocumented immigrants to help them cross into South Africa, an allegation denied by the Zimbabwean government.
Zimbabwean state media report that over 89,000 people have been arrested by Zimbabwean officials and 10 recently drowned in the Limpopo River while attempting to cross into South Africa.
Several South African hospitals visited by VOA confirm the increase in undocumented Zimbabwean women checking in for childbirth, adding they charge each undocumented patient 5,000 Rands for the visit.
Nqgabutho Mabhena of the Zimbabwean Community in South Africa Association says the reported surge of undocumented Zimbabweans by South African hospitals is proof that the Zimbabwean government needs to immediately address its ailing economy and health services.
“It is not the first time that we have seen that woman from Zimbabwe flood Musina hospitals and more than one hospital in Ekhuruleni, where they come and give birth.," Mabhena says, adding "This calls on the Zimbabwean government to be serious in terms of rebuilding the economy of Zimbabwe.”
Zimbabwe's Health Minister and Vice President, Constantine Chiwenga is quoted in state media as saying his government is working to address the health sector crisis. Harare is currently in talks with the United Nations and other entities to get funds to help pay the costs of training health workers.
Government critics argue high corruption rates and a highly informal sector is the reason Zimbabweans are flocking to South Africa in pursuit of professional services, adding President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government needs to stop using economic sanctions placed on Zimbabwe as a scape goat for its failures.
“It is not a result of the economic sanctions as argued by the Zimbabwean government and ZANU PF. It is a crisis that has been created by the looting class in Zimbabwe. They have no plan to rebuild Zimbabwe,” says Mabhena.
Mbuso Fuzwayo, a Socio-Political analyst, concurs with Mabhena’s sentiments.
“Our health system has collapsed to the extent that if you look at the number of pregnant women going outside the country to go and deliver in foreign nations," he says, "we realize the country is gone and there is no longer a government.”
