A South African woman who travelled to Zimbabwe to reunite with her husband after anti-immigrant unrest in South Africa says she has been left stranded at a Bulawayo transit centre after his family refused to accommodate her.
Charlotte Masemola, 34, from Mpumalanga, arrived in Zimbabwe on Tuesday with her three children, aged seven, six and two, after her husband urged her to join him. He had returned to Zimbabwe in May after leaving South Africa amid growing tensions and anti-immigrant violence.
Masemola is among scores of people staying at the United Congregational Church of Southern Africa (UCCSA) in Bulawayo’s Njube suburb, which has been serving as a temporary reception and transit centre for Zimbabweans returning from South Africa following the 30 June anti-immigrant protests.
The unrest prompted many Zimbabweans to return home, with churches, the government and humanitarian organisations coordinating transport and temporary accommodation for returnees.
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Holding back tears as other women at the centre comforted her, Masemola said she travelled to Zimbabwe after her husband assured her it was safe to do so.
“My husband returned to Zimbabwe around May after fleeing the unrest. I was left alone with the children in South Africa and they kept asking about their father. We spoke and he told me it was okay for me to come, so I took advantage of the buses that were repatriating people because I had no money for transport,” she said.
Masemola said she travelled using her South African identity document because she does not have a passport.
Holding a piece of paper with her husband’s phone number, she said she informed officials at every border post that she was a South African citizen.
She said she had been receiving South African child support grants before leaving the country.
However, after arriving in Zimbabwe, she said her husband told her that his sisters, with whom they had planned to stay, no longer wanted to accommodate her.
“He told me his sisters are where we were supposed to stay, but it seems the situation is not good. Before I came, I was communicating with one of his sisters and everything appeared to be fine,” she said.
“He said he has been busy at work and that is why he hasn’t come. I don’t even know where he works. He only sent his brother, whom I knew from South Africa, to visit us here. He is the one who explained what was happening because I no longer have my phone.”
Masemola said her mother had supported her decision to move to Zimbabwe.
“My mother agreed that I should come because I have children with him. She said I could stay here for two weeks or a month and then return,” she said.
The uncertainty over where the family will live has also disrupted her children’s future.
“When I arrived here there were officials from the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, but I could not register my child for school because I don’t know where we are going to stay,” she said.
Masemola said she had hoped to settle in Zimbabwe with her husband while making occasional visits to South Africa to see her mother and her 15-year-old child, who remained there.
“I don’t know if talking to the media will make things worse for me, but I don’t know what else to do,” she said.
Contacted by CITE, Masemola’s husband, who declined to be named, confirmed that he intended to collect his wife from the transit centre.
“The challenge is that my family did not want to accept her. I have since asked my friends to help me look for a place for us to stay,” he said.
He said that if he failed to secure accommodation in Bulawayo, he would relocate his wife and children to his rural home in Gwanda.
For now, Masemola and her three children remain at the transit centre, uncertain when they will be able to leave or where they will eventually settle.
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