The office of the District Administrator Maseru is intending to provide food for deportees to ensure that they are well taken care of upon their arrival in the country.

According to Maseru District Administrator (DA) Mr. Tsépo Lethobane, negotiations between his office and the business community regarding provision of food for deportees are promising.

He said this follows realisation that deportees arrive in the country in the morning hours or at night and have nothing to eat when the office is busy making preparations to transport them to their respective districts.

He also said his office usually transport  deportees to their respective districts in the afternoon to avoid many trips due to limited vehicles, hence a challenge which also needs to be addressed.

Mr. Lethobane further said they are aware that some deportees return to South Africa (SA) after sometime without passports or documents and are later re-deported, saying to address this challenge, they are working through cross border crime prevention forum to find methods which could be used to punish Basotho who stay in SA illegally rather than destroying their passports or identity cards.

Meanwhile, it has since been the DAs office wish that the Department of Home Affairs could take over and deal with deportees and Mr. Lethobane said he has received a report regarding this matter and is due to discuss it with the said department and map the way forward.

Reports indicate that Basotho nationals who stay and work in South Africa illegally are departed back to Lesotho each week and the majority are deported in December.