SA’s migrant exodus leaves employers short-handed
DURBAN - Zimbabwean farmworker Aaron Majatamhe was heading home at sunset after a shift in one of South Africa’s top fruit-producing regions, where bushes lad
International
2026-07-272026-07-27By Correspondent
DURBAN – Zimbabwean farmworker Aaron Majatamhe was heading home at sunset after a shift in one of South Africa’s top fruit-producing regions, where bushes laden with bright unpicked citrus stood in rows.
“I see a lot of farm owners who are crying now… people have to harvest those naartjies but there is no one,” the 33-year-old told AFP.
The same shortage, he said, is looming in the vineyards. “It’s time to cut off the grapes and there is no one.”
Similar scenes are playing out across South Africa as factories, farms and even ordinary households scramble for labour after thousands of foreign workers left in a matter of weeks to escape deadly anti-migrant protests and intensified immigration enforcement.
Fringe anti-foreigner groups had set June 30 as an unofficial deadline for undocumented migrants to go home, triggering the exodus of more than 160,000 people, according to an AFP tally based on figures from African governments repatriating their citizens.
