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This salary sustained her and her family back home.
Like most Zimbabweans and other foreign nationals living and working in South Africa, Maria would play hide-and-seek with the police and immigration officials because her papers were not in order.
In 2009, the South African government announced that it would open a window to regularise the stay of many Zimbabweans living and working in that country under the Zimbabwe Documentation Project (ZDP).
While many Zimbabweans took time off to sort their papers, Maria was not so lucky.
“I could get off days on Sundays and the home affairs offices were closed. I would have slept there waiting for Monday as the offices would get too crowded.
“Above all, I had no Zimbabwean passport and had to first go to the office set along Simmonds Avenue in Johannesburg to obtain one. Time was just not on my side.
“I had to work and send money back home as a day off work would mean a deduction on my salary. I was in a dilemma and thought I would continue evading the police,” said Maria.
This is despite the fact that the process was decentralised and other offices offering permits included the Johannesburg Regional Office at the new government building at the corner of Harrison and Plein Streets, Johannesburg District office, Cedar Building, corner Webber and Power Streets, Germiston.
In Soweto, the Regional Office at the corner of Armitage and Khumalo Roads, Orlando West was also used as a registration point.
Vereeniging Regional office, San Roan Building, Voortreker Street was another registration centre.
In Randfontein, the regional office was at Number 2 Main Reef Road.
Fountain Plaza was also a registration centre.
Not going to one of these offices, which were close to where most Zimbabweans lived and worked proved a costly mistake for the now 21-year-old Maria who eventually failed to meet the December 31, 2010 deadline to regularise her stay in South Africa.
She was deported.
Maria, the breadwinner in her family, looked after her grandmother (86), four siblings, three cousins, a niece and a nephew.
Almost her mother’s entire family was wiped by Aids-related illnesses leaving her to fend for her grandmother and cousins.
Her 26-year-old brother who joined the great trek to South Africa seems to have disappeared.
“I only heard from him four times while I was there. I just hear that so-and-so has seen him in Johannesburg or in Lady Smith.”
Since her return home, Maria had to find an alternative to take care of her family.
Her first step was to apply for a passport and venture into cross border trade.
“Business started off well as I would go to South Africa and Botswana to buy clothes, television sets, refrigerators and stoves among other things for resale.
“But because of the introduction of heavy excise duty, I started incurring losses as I sometimes had to leave my wares at the border while looking for money to pay the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority.
“I then started going to the growth point to look for other means of getting money, but it was not enough. I then moved to Harare.
“I am ashamed but there is nothing I can do. Jobs are hard to come by. My grandmother does not know what I am doing here,” said Maria, who is now a commercial sex worker in Harare’s Avenues Area.
She says she now makes an average of US$180 per week depending on the type of clients she gets.
The rent of the flat she stays in is US$20 per day per person and she stays with many other ladies of the night.
She is among many Zimbabwean breadwinners who were deported from South Africa, leaving their families between a hard place and a rock.
The deportations, which began in October last year, have left thousands of households without income.
Mbuya Mavis Ndlovu of Plumtree depended on money from her grandson Mandla who went to South Africa in 2003.
Each month, the 72-year-old woman would join many other grannies who would patiently wait for the omalaicha (commuter ominus drivers) who deliver groceries and money from South Africa) to arrive with an assortment of groceries, clothes, a little bit of cash and goodies.
But now she just waves the omalaicha she had befriended as he drives past her home.
If she is lucky, the omalaicha who feels sorry for the old woman sometimes gives her a 10kg packet of rice and 2 litres of cooking oil.
“This area is dry and food is difficult to get. The return of my grandchild now means that I have to go and find a job weeding plots at the irrigation schemes.
“My health is failing me and I am finding life very tough. Life was quite bearable when Mandla was still in South Africa. Now he spends his time hopping from one village to the other looking for piece jobs. At least he took care of me when he could and built a decent house for me,” says Gogo Ndlovu.
It has been four months since Mandla was deported and he is having problems adapting to his new life.
He is also struggling to integrate into society.
“I fear the worst may come. He always complains and I fear he will commit suicide because he has lost his only source of income.
“My boy was used to life in Msanzi where he could eat what he wants, wear nice clothes and above all go to work. Government seems to have not prepared for the return of these people as he did not receive any counseling. I just pray that God will protect him,” says Gogo Ndlovu, a retired teacher living on a meager pension.
The near demise of industry, low salaries paid to civil servants, economic meltdown as a result of various factors, lack of basic social amenities like affordable health facilities, food and accommodation pushed many Zimbabweans to neighbouring countries while others took the international route.
Despite the economy improving with the coming in of the inclusive Government in 2009, civil servants and most workers still earn salaries below the poverty datum line, industry is not working to its full capacity and jobs are just hard to come by even for Zimbabweans who never left the country.
Salaries have been stagnant for some time with food prices, rentals, electricity and other amenities going up.
The International Organisation for Migration estimates that 1 to 1.5 Zimbabwean migrants are living in South Africa yet only 275 000 applied for regularisation and met the December 31, 2010 deadline.
IOM Zimbabwe Media and Public Information Officer, Ms Folen Murapa said a total of 10 388 people have been deported from South Africa since October last year.
Of the deported people, 302 are aged between 0-4 years old, 70 between 5 and 10 years old and 283 between 11 and 17.
She added that 4921 are aged between 18 to 24 while 3755 are 25 years old and above.
Ms Murapa revealed that of the deported people, 8 929 are males while only 1 459 are women.
She said the IOM has been providing immediate humanitarian assistance at the border for stranded returned migrants, ensuring that they do not fall into immediate vulnerability.
The organisation has been providing food , medical assistance, safe migration information and free same day transport home.
“For migrants that return home sick, immediate medical assistance is provided with IOM paying all the necessary bills at the Beitbridge Hospital until when the person is fit to be discharged and travel home.
“Many other migrants are referred to local hospitals in their home areas if they have medical problems, but are fit to travel the same day,” she said.
Ms Murapa revealed that the IOM reception and support centre offers cooked meals, advice on safe migration, HIV, human trafficking and other legal and health issues as well as protection assistance through the referral of cases of abuse, injustice to legal and other authorities; medical assessments, sanitation and hygiene facilities.
They also offer specialised attention, accommodation, counselling, family tracing and reuniting unaccompanied minors to returning migrants upon request.
Social worker Mr Msekiwa Makwanya of Makaita Social Care Consultants said migrants without appropriate migration documents are naturally vulnerable because they are often seen as offenders and are usually treated with less respect and sometimes abused.
He said the deportation of Zimbabweans from South Africa will present a serious headache for social workers because among the vulnerable are children who will need to be reunited with their families and the rights of children are protected internationally.
Mr Makwanya said the issue of the man who wanted to commit suicide because he had lost his form of income is a very sad one, adding that it is important that relatives understand that the grass is not always green on the other side and the option to return home should not always be viewed as failure or a disaster.
“However, this is a matter for counselling and people need some help to manage changes in their lives.
“This is what social workers are trained to do, help people improve their level of functioning and realise their potential,” he pointed out.
Mr Makwanya said the deportees may have been out of the country for a long time and may need some half-way homes while they wait to be integrated into their former communities if they exist.
“Remember a lot of relatives, friends and neighbours could have passed on. There will be many unaccompanied minors, but our children’s homes are full.
Social work interventions will be crucial in integrating deportees whom we should actually call returnees to avoid stigmatising them. They are forced returnees, but what is important is that they are home,” he said.
leeroy
Online Reporter