ZIMBABWEAN street vendor Memory Chauke did not get very far when she hopped over a fence into neighbouring South Africa on the first day its borders reopened after a six-month closure due to the coronavirus pandemic.
South African patrol guards had anticipated that Zimbabweans would resume illegal crossings into the country to buy goods as soon as travel restrictions were lifted.
Hundreds were arrested. They had tried to smuggle groceries back to impoverished Zimbabwe, where an economic downturn and rampant hyperinflation have destroyed livelihoods.
Chauke was caught on the way back to her village, on a gravel road around 500 metres (1,640 feet) away from the official Beitbridge border post. She looked sombre and exhausted as she sat under a large thorn tree, surrounded by grocery bags.
Chauke said it was the first time she had been arrested during crossing.
“I always run,” she told AFP. “Today, I didn’t manage.
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