Cape Town Relocates Zimbabweans to Repatriation Centre as Voluntary Return Process Begins

CAPE TOWN – The City of Cape Town has begun relocating large groups of Zimbabwean nationals who had gathered outside Zimbabwe's Consulate in District Six to the Department of Home Affairs Repatriation Centre in Epping, where they will be processed for voluntary return to Zimbabwe. The relocation operation commenced at approximately 9 am on Sunday, 28 June, and is being coordinated by the City of Cape Town in partnership with the Department of Home Affairs and the Zimbabwean Consulate. Municipal authorities said the Home Affairs Repatriation Centre in Epping is the designated facility for processing voluntary repatriation requests and is equipped to accommodate large numbers of people safely and efficiently.

The City has advised Zimbabwean nationals wishing to return home not to report to the Zimbabwean Consulate in District Six, stressing that repatriation applications will no longer be handled there. Instead, all individuals seeking voluntary repatriation will first be processed at the Epping centre before being transported to the Beitbridge Border Post, Zimbabwe's busiest land border crossing with South Africa.

City Safety and Security officers have been deployed to oversee the relocation exercise, while Traffic Services and Urban Waste Management teams are managing vehicle movement and sanitation around the affected areas. Authorities also thanked humanitarian organisations assisting displaced families and appealed to members of the public to avoid the vicinity of the consulate while the operation continues.

The relocation follows weeks of growing crowds outside Zimbabwe's Consulate in District Six, where hundreds of Zimbabwean nationals had gathered seeking assistance to return home amid increasing uncertainty over their future in South Africa. Many families, including women and children, had been camping outside the diplomatic mission while waiting for information on transport and documentation required for repatriation.

The move comes against the backdrop of escalating anti-immigrant sentiment in South Africa.

Groups including March'n'March and Operation Dudula have publicly called for undocumented foreign nationals to leave the country by 30 June, a deadline that has heightened anxiety among migrant communities. Although the deadline is not an official government directive, it has coincided with growing anti-immigrant demonstrations, threats against foreign nationals, and heightened tensions in several communities.

Concern that planned protests around 30 June could become violent has prompted many Zimbabwean families to opt for voluntary repatriation ahead of the demonstrations. Authorities say the relocation to Epping is intended to ensure that the repatriation process is conducted in an orderly, safe, and dignified manner while reducing congestion around the Zimbabwean Consulate.

Cape Town has relocated Zimbabwean nationals from the Zimbabwean Consulate in District Six to the Epping Repatriation Centre for voluntary return processing before transport to Beitbridge.

Zimbabweans repatriation Cape Town