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Africa correspondent
Updated: 09:49, Tuesday July 31, 2007
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Vigilantes have launched their own campaign to stop thousands of impoverished Zimbabweans crossing the border illegally into South Africa.
The influx is fuelled by poverty and desperation.
But some in South Africa are so alarmed by their government's apparent failure to prevent the wave of illegal immigration that they are taking action themselves.
Sky News joined a group of white farmers as they patrolled the border between Africa's richest nation - and a country on the brink of collapse.
The men, who are using vehicles designed for game hunting to track down illegal immigrants from Zimbabwe, are the self declared enforcers of South Africa's immigration laws.
"They are coming into our land, breaking our fences and killing our animals, we can't afford it, and the security forces are doing nothing so we have to act," Andre Nienaber told me.
It's not long before they identify their first prey. A group of about eight men and women are wandering by the roadside, they scatter as soon as the farmers stop to question them, and the white men jump out of their pick up trucks to give chase.
The men are too fast for them, but they corner one of the women. She looks terrified as they drive one of the trucks towards her, pinning her against a fence.
Her hands are bound with a plastic tie and, together with her friend she's loaded into the back of the pick up. One of the farmers warns them not to try to run away again: "If you do there'll be trouble," he said.
As the hunt goes on the women, crouching on the floor of the truck, tell me they had come to South Africa to try to find work so they can support their children back home in Zimbabwe.
"I have four children and she has two," Fungai Makoni said.
Further down the road, the farmers spot another group. This time they meekly climb into the back of another pick up, without even attempting to escape. They had been walking for two days.
"We had to leave", Tacaran Mkundele said, his exhaustion obvious. "In Zimbabwe we cannot survive. The bread costs 55 thousand bucks."
Inflation is now close to 5 thousand per cent in Zimbabwe, fuelling the rush over the border. The farmers are collecting scores of Zimbabweans every day and no one seems to question their authority - even when they demand to see the identification of some black South Africans who just happen to be walking near the border.
Escapees are rounded up by civilians
"What would you say to those people who say you're just a bunch of vigilantes?" I asked Gideon Meiring, the leader of the farmers' patrol.
"No one dares say that", he told me leaning against a pick up truck full of his passive captives. "If they are honest people should get down on their knees and thank us."
The police, accused by the farmers of doing little to stem the flood of illegal Zimbabweans, seem to have little choice but to co-operate with the operation.
They collect the captives and take them to holding centres ready for deportation.
Among them we found Joas Mande, 61. Like the others, his hands were bound and his eyes reflected the despair of a father who would be returning to his family empty handed.
"I have two sons who want to go to University," he told me. "Now there will be no-one to support them. I have failed."
Most of the Zimbabweans said the situation in their homeland was so bad that they had no choice but to try to sneak into South Africa again.
But the farmers will be looking for them. South Africa is already home to an estimated three million illegal immigrants from Zimbabwe and they say the country has to put its own interests first.
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