Gwanda (New Ziana) – Fifteen Ethiopian nationals were on Tuesday nabbed by police at a rural homestead near Gwanda, the provincial capital of Matebeland South.

The Ethiopian immigrants were arrested at Switsha village, under chief Nhlamba, and accused of illegally crossing the country’s borders.

This comes in the wake of a 21-day Covid-19 lockdown in the country to stop the spread of the virus which has killed thousands around the world, and infected nearly a million more, including in Ethiopia.

Working on a tip off, police swooped the village on Tuesday morning, and arrested the Ethiopians immigrants from one of the homesteads.

According to police, one of the immigrants was ill, and has been taken to Gwanda hospital for treatment.

The villagers said the Ethiopians arrived in their area on Wednesday last week, and expressed grave fears that, in view of the coronavirus, the immigrants could be carriers of the pandemic given the ill-health of one of them.

But Matebeland South provincial medical director, Rudo Chikodzore ruled out coronavirus infection on the immigrant detained in hospital.

“Among the 15 foreigners from Ethiopia there was one who was very very ill and we have made an assessment and the patient does not have any symptoms of Coronavirus but is dehydrated and weak,” she said.

“According to the case definition, he did not fit the coronavirus definition. We will still continue to take precautionary measures and manage him as a suspected case.”

“So we are going to quarantine all of them for the next 21 days in order to ensure that everyone is safe,” Chikodzore said.

The travel history of the Ethiopians is unknown, but sources said they came to area with a cross-border transporter who wanted to smuggle them to South Africa through the Mlambapeli border post.

But this, according to the sources, failed and the alleged transporter then took them to his rural home at Sukwi and left them in the custody of his family while he worked out the next move.

New Ziana