Basotho migrant workers deported

MASERU – Limpho Kanetsi was working at a factory in Newcastle, South Africa, when she heard that the police had started a special operation to arrest illegal migrant workers. She immediately went into hiding.

She said she had to sleep in an open space for days after running away from the police, afraid that even the house she rented would be raided.

“We did not have food or clean water,” she said.

The police eventually caught up with her and she left everything she had in her rented house in Newcastle.

Kanetsi was among the more than 500 Basotho who were arrested by the South African police in a crackdown against illegal migrant workers last week.

She says she cannot go back to fetch her belongings because she has now been banned from the country for five years.

“I do not even have my phone with me. I only have a few clothes,” she said.

She said her employer did not pay them the money they had worked for.

The South African authorities raided factories in Newcastle, KwaZulu-Natal, purging illegal immigrants working there including hundreds of Basotho.

Prime Minister Sam Matekane dispatched seven buses to go to Newcastle and fetch Basotho home.

They arrived on Monday, with the government spokesperson Communications Minister Nthati Moorosi promising that the buses were going back to collect those who stayed behind.

Of the 500 brought back home, 27 were rearrested at the border and taken to Ladybrand for crimes that were not yet clear.

The deportees told thepost that, as it often happens when employers avoid paying workers without proper work permits, they were arrested at a time when they were supposed to get paid.

Keketso Setipa said she left Lesotho on January 22 and went to work in Newcastle at a garments factory.

Setipa said she had been working there until last week on Tuesday when some people tipped them that the police were coming for them.

She said she tried to flee to the township where she stayed but found police cars already there looking for her and others.

“We fled and tried to hide at a place owned by one Afrikaner but they chased us away and called the police on us,” Setipa said.

She says they then decided to hide in the nearest bush without food and water.

“We were living under the rains and the sun for those days,” she said.

She complained that they slept in the open space for more than five days.

“It hurts because I did not go to South Africa to steal. I went there in search of a job for my children,” she said.

She added that she has left her belongings behind.

“I only have this small bag.”

She worries that once she goes back to South Africa to collect her important things she would be arrested again. She worked in South Africa without a work permit.

She said herdboys who found them wandering in the veldt offered them milk and “we survived on that milk”.

“We used to drink any water we found. When we found a pond of dirty water we knelt down and drank,” she said.

Another victim who declined to be named said her employer managed to hide them “but the employer forced us to work saying if we did not work we should walk out of the gates so that we could be arrested”.

“For the sake of our safety we had to work even at night,” she said.

“We left Lesotho to work not to commit crimes, but the (political) leadership in that country does not welcome us. It makes one cry.”

Lisebo Mahamo, another deportee, said the employer only paid them M150 each saying they would get their full salaries the following day.

“On the following day, we did not get our money. Instead the police arrived.”

Some of the illegal workers, she said, are still in Newcastle as they are afraid to go out of their hiding places.

The Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, Limpho Tau, said the government is in talks with South Africa so that those who were arrested are brought back home.

“Where there were challenges, please forgive us, our plan was always to ensure that you arrive here at home safely,” Tau said.

“We are working on bringing back all those who are still in hiding in Newcastle,” he said.

He added that “there is no other neighbour except South Africa”.

“The free movements documents were signed, but they were never implemented.”

He said Matekane will meet Cyril Ramaphosa to discuss the matter and “the terms and conditions must be made flexible for both countries”.

He said the government is working hard to ensure that enough jobs are created in Lesotho so that Basotho are not forced to seek jobs in other countries.

Nkheli Liphoto