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Nearly two lakh Zimbabweans have fled South Africa's anti-migrant campaign, Harare says
Cabinet was told 197,294 people have come home since vigilante groups began hunting foreigners, though the flow has now slowed.
Key points
- Zimbabwe says 197,294 of its citizens have returned from South Africa amid attacks on migrants.
- Of them, 42,553 came home through government arrangements; the rest made their own way.
- Groups such as Operation Dudula have targeted Zimbabweans, Somalis, Nigerians and others.
Nearly two lakh Zimbabweans have returned home from South Africa since vigilante groups there began hunting down foreigners, the Zimbabwean government says.
Ministers told a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday that 197,294 people had been repatriated and resettled. Of those, 42,553 came back through government arrangements, with buses sent as far as Cape Town to collect people stranded at the consulate. The other 154,741 made their own way home.
“As at 6th October 2026, a total of 42,553 returnees had been repatriated through Government arrangements,” the government said in its post-Cabinet briefing. It said the numbers “significantly declined, for both Government-supported returnees and self-repatriates” in recent weeks, but added: “Government continues to monitor the situation and is ready to respond to any possible influx of returnees in the future.”
Among those brought back with state help were 10,475 men, 13,631 women and more than 18,000 children. Separately, 700 people deported from South Africa’s Lindela Repatriation Centre were received at the Beitbridge border by late September. Some of them are convicts who must finish their sentences in Zimbabwe, and the security services are screening all returnees.
The campaign against migrants has been led by groups including Operation Dudula and March and March, and former South African president Jacob Zuma has also been named among its leaders. Zimbabweans, Somalis, Nigerians, Ethiopians and Malawians have all been targeted. The drive peaked around 30 June, when vigilantes issued a national call to chase foreigners out, but looting, violence and displacement have continued, most recently in Durban. Foreigners are being told to head for the nearest border from wherever they are.