Harare - Finance Minister Tendai Biti has castigated the South African government for threatening to deport all Zimbabweans saying it was unAfrican and lack of gratitude on the part of the South Africans given the fact that Zimbabweans had been contributing to its economic growth through providing labour over the years.

“We are all Africans living  in the same global village and Zimbabwean labour have   been building the South African economy and rebuilding it. Also  there is  no African who did  not  fight against Apartheid," he said.

He said it was unfortunate for South Africa to take such a  rigid position, saying the move was Xenophobic in another way.

“Our people can come back and  we have  no  problems  about that, but the principle  I am questioning  is  that an African Government can take a  drastic action against an African people. I think that policy needs  to be  re-looked at,”Biti told journalists in Harare  Thursday evening.

South African authorities announced last week that the deportations would begin as of the 31st December this year, warning that all undocumented Zimbabweans have until that date to sort out their paperwork.

A moratorium on Zimbabwean deportations was announced in May last year, at the same time that the South African government announced it intended giving Zimbabweans a special dispensation permit.

That permit was meant to assist Zimbabweans in regularising their stay in South Africa, as technically, with the special permit, they no longer had to apply for refugee status to work or receive support. But that permit was never rolled out, and the paperwork crisis that epitomises South Africa’s Home Affairs department means most Zimbabweans in the country remain undocumented.

Thousands  of Zimbabweans  skipped the country  at the peak  of Zimbabwean political and economic crisis and  went to  regional and international countries in search  of  better fortunes.

By Radio VOP