Immigration Public Relations Officer Mulako Mbangweta said they feared the situation was spiralling out of control in Livingstone – a tourist hub because of the nearby Victoria Falls.
Mbangweta said: “We now fear the security risks that can be posed by this swollen influx.”
She said most people crossed into Zambia to buy goods such as bread, corn flour and milk that were unavailable in Zimbabwe and later returned home. South Africa and Botswana also had an upsurge in cross-border shopping.
Zimbabwe’s Sunday Mail, a government mouthpiece, reported that experts predicted the wheat harvest would be the worst in years, below the 78 000 tons harvested last year and far short of the target 340 000 tons because of electricity shortages, which prevented farmers from irrigating the crop.
The president of the Zimbabwe Indigenous Commercial Farmers Union, Wilson Nyabonda, said: “In some areas farmers could go for four consecutive days without electricity. It became impossible to irrigate and complete the required cycles, resulting in the crop wilting.”
Maize, rather than wheat was the staple diet of most Zimbabweans, but the disastrous wheat crop was likely to worsen bread shortages and served to highlight the economic woes of southern Africa’s former breadbasket.
The World Food Programme appealed last week for $118m to help more than 3.3 million Zimbabweans – more than a quarter of the population – facing severe food shortages.
Zambian immigration officer Mbangweta gave no estimates of the number of Zimbabweans sneaking into Zambia illegally and staying.
But, there were mounting concern among Zimbabwe’s neighbours that they would be swamped with destitute refugees as Zimbabwe’s crisis worsened.
Aziz Pahad, SA deputy foreign minister, on Thursday voiced alarm at predictions by the International Monetary Fund that Zimbabwe’s inflation might hit 100 000% by the end of the year.
He said that neighbouring countries “will not be able to sustain the levels of refugees.” There are an estimated 3 million Zimbabweans in SA, most of them illegally.
Farmers on SA’s northern border had started a vigilante campaign against the illegal immigrants, accusing them of theft and of scaring away foreign tourists in game lodges along the border.
Associated Press (AP)