The more than 1,000 food parcels will also provide humanitarian relief for the elderly and orphaned children in the small town of Gwanda, in southern Zimbabwe, where Bigtime Strategic Group founder and chief executive Justice Maphosa was born.

“We gave away 1,100 food parcels. Four hundred of the food parcels are for the people in the buses [the repatriated Zimbabweans]. When they finish [quarantine], they will take some food parcels with them to share with their families,” Maphosa said.

Each food parcel for the returnees includes 25kg of maize meal, 2kg of rice, 2kg sugar, 2 litres of cooking oil and soap. 

“The same food items are for 700 people in my hometown of Gwanda. As I remember everyone who is struggling, I remember the people from the community that raised me,” Maphosa said. 

“The only criteria that is non-negotiable is that the food set aside for the Gwanda community – is only for the elderly and the orphans, there must never be a mistake. By elderly, I mean someone who is a pensioner, with no other source of income and over the age of 60,” he said. 

The Pretoria-headquartered Bigtime Strategic Group has also donated at least 3,000 gloves and masks as well as sanitisers for the Zimbabwean returnees now quarantined in Bulawayo and Harare.

“They will each get one pair of gloves and a mask for each day they are in quarantine, so that they are able to change them,” Maphosa said.

On Friday, Maphosa hired the six buses that left Gauteng, ferrying hundreds of Zimbabwean nationals who have been stranded in South Africa.

Zimbabwe’s ambassador to South Africa, David Hamadziripi, said the many Zimbabweans returning home had lost their sources of income.

“What has necessitated the repatriation is the hardship some of our nationals are facing following this proclamation of the national state of disaster and the lockdown measures that have been implemented, which have entailed that we stay at home, without being able to go out and do normal activities.

“The (stranded Zimbabweans) have indicated that they wish to go back home, and the embassy, working with the Bigtime Strategic Group, has been able to put together some resources to support their return home,” Hamadziripi said. 

The United Nations' migration agency, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), led by chief of mission Lily Sanya was providing technical support to the embassy in planning the trip logistics and carrying out this humanitarian repatriation exercise. 

The technical support also included co-ordination of pre-departure arrangements, pre-embarking medical check and distribution of Covid-19 awareness material.

African News Agency