The clock is ticking for about 180 000 Zimbabwean nationals who have to find another way to stay in South Africa or face deportation when the Zimbabwean Exemption Permits (ZEP) expire on 31 December 2022.
Home Affairs Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi decided in November last year to terminate the ZEP, giving Zimbabweans living in South Africa 12 months to apply for a different visa that would allow them to stay in the country.
The ZEPs came about after Home Affairs experienced an influx of asylum seekers from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) between 2008 and 2009, when more than 400 000 people sought asylum in the country. The vast majority were from Zimbabwe, hence the name of the permits, as they fled the tumultuous economic and political situation in their home country. Home Affairs could not deal with the high number of daily applicants, so a special project, with an allocated budget of R15 million, was started to grant exemptions to the SADC nationals. Since 2009 the government has repeatedly extended the exemption and now says it can no longer afford to do so. But it’s more likely that rising xenophobic sentiment in the country – latched on to by nearly all political parties – is behind the move.
Obtaining a general working visa in SA is a logistical nightmare.
The Helen Suzman Foundation has launched legal action against Motsoaledi. The foundation said that it was not in favour of migrants who are in South Africa illegally being entitled to remain, nor that the ZEP should continue indefinitely. “Rather, our position is that those who have scrupulously observed South Africa’s laws in order to live and work here under the ZEP cannot have such permits terminated without fair process, good reason and a meaningful opportunity to regulate their status.”
Amen.
Tshego is a writer and law student from Pretoria. A keen follower of social media trends, his interests include high fantasy media, politics, science, talk radio, reading and listening to music.
He is also probably one of the only people left who still play Pokemon Go.
