Smugglers and migrants: How S.Africa's border became a hot election issue

Zimbabwean migrants wishing to enter South Africa queue at the immigration offices at the Beitbridge crossing, on April 23, 2024. [AFP]

As night falls, a handful of South African soldiers slouch under a tent near a crocodile-infested pond off the largely dry Limpopo River separating their country from Zimbabwe.

They are tasked with patrolling kilometres of wild terrain for smugglers ferrying across cigarettes, stolen cars and most of all people.