In a blink of an eye, Vincent Bwoni from Zimbabwe lost everything he worked three years to build.

On Tuesday afternoon, Bwoni stood in the DH William Hall in Katlehong where hundreds of displaced people from Mozambique and Zimbabwe were being sheltered.

Blankets, bags with clothes, and bicycles lined the walls.

The immigrants had just finished their lunch of pap, beef stew and cabbage in polystyrene containers.

Some listen to music and play cards while others sit in groups on plastic chairs.

At the back of the hall a father is giving flu medicine to his baby.

The mood in the hall is sombre. Those who once slept in comfortable beds with warm bedding now have to find a spot on the floor.

Ntladi said arrangements were made with authorities for some Mozambicans to return home on Tuesday evening.

Transport would be discussed with the relevant embassies

Those who also wanted to return to their homes in Gauteng to fetch their documents would be taken there with a police escort.

Ntladi described the mood at the hall as “very emotional”.

“You will find a five-year-old boy asking his daddy why they were here and why he is not going to school or where his toys were. One has to share the tears, because it is not an easy thing that has happened to this community.”

A flight from Johannesburg to Lagos that was arranged to evacuate Nigerians who fear xenophobic attacks in SA was delayed on Wednesday because of problems experienced at check-in.

Prince Ben Okoli, president of the Nigerian Citizens Association SA, said the chartered flight by Nigerian airline Air Peace was due to leave with the first batch of Nigerians at 9.10am on Wednesday.

“However, a number of people were singled out by immigration as they were about to board the flight. This has led to a delay in the flight leaving SA. We are currently looking at solutions to the problem.

“Some [Nigerian nationals] were identified as having problems with immigration. Authorities are attending to the problem. By now they should have left,” Okoli said at 3.30pm on Wednesday.

The first evacuation was planned for Saturday, September 7, but was postponed until Wednesday to address the issue of expired paperwork of some Nigerians.

The Nigerian foreign affairs ministry said on Wednesday that 649 Nigerian nationals had registered with Nigerian missions in SA for the free flight offer.

The ministry had expected the first 313 nationals to leave Johannesburg on Wednesday on the first of charter flights offered by Air Peace.

Okoli said the consulate-general had promised to issue travel documents free of charge to those who were without valid documents after they had been authenticated by Nigerian authorities to be from that country.

The body of Zimbabwe’s founder Robert Mugabe arrived at the country’s main airport on Wednesday, but his final resting place remained a source of mystery amid a dispute between some family members and the government.

Mugabe, one of the last “Big Men” of African politics who ruled the southern African nation for 37 years until he was ousted by his own army in November 2017, died in a Singapore hospital five days ago.

He is proving as polarising in death as he was in life, as the fight over where he will be buried threatens to embarrass his successor, President Emmerson Mnangagwa, and deepen divisions in the ruling ZANU-PF party.

The former president’s body arrived at Harare’s Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport shortly after 1330 GMT. A military guard of honour stood at attention as the casket was removed from the aircraft, draped in the national flag and accompanied by security chiefs.

“The entire nation of Zimbabwe, our people, across the board are grieved and are in mourning because the light which led us to independence is no more, but his works, his ideology will continue to guide this nation,” Mnangagwa said.

“On the day we shall lay him to rest, on Sunday, I appeal to you in your hundreds, in your thousands, in your millions to show your love of our great leader who has left us,” he added.

Mugabe’s wife Grace, dressed in black with a black veil, was next to Mnangagwa at the airport. Also present were Mugabe’s daughter Bona and Savior Kasukuwere, a former Mugabe cabinet minister and staunch ally who has been living in self-imposed exile in South Africa since early this year.

Vice President Constantino Chiwenga, the former general who led the coup that overthrew Mugabe, was conspicuous by his absence at the airport. He has been receiving treatment in China since July for an unknown illness.

Crowds had gathered at the airport well before the scheduled arrival time, with some wearing T-shirts bearing Mugabe’s face and others with Mnangagwa’s image, while music blared from loudspeakers.

A convoy of 4×4 vehicles with number plates bearing the letters “RG Mugabe” and the former leader’s signature were also on the runway.

BLUE ROOF

Leo Mugabe, a nephew and family spokesman, declined to say where Mugabe would be buried.

Mnangagwa said the body would be taken to Mugabe’s palatial home in the capital, known as Blue Roof, after a detour to a military barracks for prayers.

On Thursday, ordinary Zimbabweans and supporters are expected to pay their last respects to Mugabe at a Harare soccer stadium, where the body will lie in state before being taken to his rural home in Kutama, 85 km (50 miles) from the capital, he added.

Police and other law enforcement agencies pounced on Dragon City in Fordsburg, Johannesburg, on Wednesday, seizing counterfeit goods worth more than R10m and arresting 15 people for various offences.

Gauteng SAPS spokesperson Capt Mavela Masondo said the police, the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department, the SA Revenue Service and fashion brand owners raided Dragon City following intelligence information that several stores or shops were selling counterfeit goods.

Masondo said the raid was a continuation of operations that have been carried out in and around Johannesburg central, where goods worth millions have been confiscated and several undocumented people arrested.

Masondo said police were targeting more areas in Johannesburg and surrounding towns.

“As goods were being removed from the shops, some of the owners locked storerooms and police had to break them open to seize the goods. Confiscated goods were removed and taken as exhibits,” he said.

“More information is being followed to deal with the influx of counterfeit goods from abroad and locally manufactured goods.”

Masondo added that some people were detained for being in the country illegally.

City Power also disconnected some illegal electricity connections at the shopping centre.

Gauteng Police Commissioner Lt-Gen Elias Mawela praised the involvement of various roleplayers in dealing with the sale of counterfeit goods, which he said affected the country’s economy.