TO GO WITH AFP STORY BY FRAN BLANDY Sout

TO GO WITH AFP STORY BY FRAN BLANDY South African farmers patrol on March 17, 2008 the farming area of Waterpoort in South Africa in search of Zimbabwean illegal immigrants stealing and attacking farms. The Green Light Patrol pick-up trucks screech off down dirt roads into the dark, farmers voices crackling over the radio in typical reaction to any one of the problems that plague them: Fruit theft, farm attacks and trespassers. Efficient, preventative and, according to the farmers, highly effective, the random patrols have brought crime down and keep out Zimbabwean immigrants, providing farmers with protection they feel government has failed to provide. Here in the northernmost part of South Africa there is little else but farmland and harsh bushveld stretching hundreds of kilometres south of the muddy Limpopo river that thousands of Zimbabweans risk their lives to cross. Desperate to escape hunger and poverty and reach the city of Johannesburg 540km south of the Beitbridge border, they venture into this unforgiving landscape of olive-green scrub, khakibos and baobab trees. AFP PHOTO/GIANLUIGI GUERCIA (Photo credit should read GIANLUIGI GUERCIA/AFP via Getty Images)