A month after a Zimbabwean court ordered the release of two South African women they are still behind bars - and in limbo.
Last month Zakiti Mbane and Mpo Mkonza, respectively from Randfontein and Kagiso on Gauteng's West Rand, won a court case in which they challenged their detention at Chikurubi maximum-security prison.
They were detained for almost a year, for allegedly not having the correct travel documents.
But this week, the immigration department put blame on the South African embassy in Harare for the delay in the return of Mbane and Mkonza to their home country.
Zakiti is the sister Banyana Banyana soccer player Bambanani Mbane.
On Friday, Bambanani said she was "worried by her continued absence from home. I don't know what to do now, she has a young child who misses her."
In ordering their immediate release, the courts said the women's detention was unlawful and violated their fundamental rights.
A letter to the pair's legal representative, Brian Hungwe, said Zimbabwe needed confirmation from consular officials at the South African embassy on the identity and nationalities of the women.
"You will appreciate that we cannot as a country repatriate a foreign national to any country unless that country accepts that it is their national, provides them with requisite travel documentation and is prepared to receive them on arrival. We have diplomatic ties with our neighbours which remain sacrosanct," the letter reads.
That confirmation was provided. Now it is the cost of their journey home that is keeping the women in prison.
On Friday, Hungwe said: "They are still in detention and we are still trying to raise money to facilitate their travel to SA."
The pair were arrested in January 2018 and handed over to immigration officials, who detained them on the grounds that they did not have the correct travel documents. Zakiti said that upon arrival in Zimbabwe last year, she lost her passport and went to Harare central police station for help. She was, however, handed over to immigration officials by the police.
Mkonza said in her affidavit that she endured "trauma, mental anguish and psychological effects" due to the incarceration after she was arrested when she lost her passport on her way to Zambia.
Michael Nelwamondo, the counsellor for political affairs at the South African embassy, said they had verified and confirmed the pair's citizenship, but the release was stalled because their families cannot afford to fly them home.
"When embassy officials went to immigration ready to buy bus tickets for them, they were told that the law doesn't allow them to travel by bus," he said.
"So the problem so far is that there is no sponsor to assist with purchasing air tickets. Right now we are scouting for sponsors to buy air tickets. As officials from the embassy, we were ready to buy bus tickets for them."..