Millions a myth – SA minister

should be to tackle the root causes of Zimbabwe’s problems,” said Nquakula, responding to the Lounies Bosman, president of Agric-SA, who had proposed to set up a camp at the Beitbridge border.
Nquakula also took it as an opportunity to attack the media for giving unrealistic figures of Zimbabweans who are sheltering themselves in South Africa as such tendencies had created some negative perceptions about Zimbabweans.
“I believe that we must defuse the myth that millions of Zimbabweans are in South Africa,” she said.
The media has in the past three years placed estimates of Zimbabweans in South Africa to about four million – a third of the total population.
She reiterated that thousands of hungry Zimbabweans who daily flock into the country were not seeking political refugee dismissing the issue of establishing the setting up of camps in Limpopo, saying that to do so would violate United Nations regulations.
She described most Zimbabweans who illegally enter the country as “economic migrants” who had no intention of settling but wanted only to buy food.
“These are people who still want to go back to their country. They are not asylum-seekers… Asylum-seekers do not jump borders, they know where to go to seek asylum. People who jump borders are economic migrants,” the minister said. – Trust Matsilele