BATTLE TO STAY
Frantic scramble as December deadline looms for 178,000 Zimbabwean Exemption Permit holders
Fewer than 4% (6,000 out of 178,000) of Zimbabwean Exemption Permit (ZEP) holders have made representations to the Department of Home Affairs to say why their documents should not be terminated in December. But the permit holders have to contend with dysfunctional Home Affairs offices and high costs.
Financial constraints and hard-to-meet criteria for alternative permits will lock thousands of Zimbabweans out of their lives in South Africa as the invalidation of the Zimbabwean Exemption Permits (ZEP) looms.
Liesl Fourie, an attorney at Nelson Mandela University’s Refugee Rights Centre, says: “ZEP holders have to apply for alternative immigration visas… to legalise their stay in SA. These visa applications are R1,750 per visa, plus an additional R800 for the SA Police [Service] clearance certificate, plus medical and radiological reports.
“In addition, they also require a Zimbabwean police clearance certificate and a Zimbabwean passport which will be valid for many months after the expiry of the visa that they are applying for.
“All of this costs money. Each family member, including minor children, who reside in SA, will have to make their application, so the cost increases exponentially with every family member present in SA.”
According to the Department of Home Affairs, fewer than 4% (6,000 out of 178,000) ZEP holders have made representations to the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) to say why their documents should not be terminated in December.
Read in Daily Maverick: “Government (again) defends controversial decision to scrap Zimbabwean permits”
Precarious situation
Arnold Bosso (31) has lived in Verulam, KwaZulu-Natal for 14 years and says he is in a precarious situation as he is a construction worker, which is not considered to be a critical skill. Outside of that, he doesn’t qualify or have the money to acquire a different permit for himself or his family of six.
“When I came to SA I had my excavator operator’s certificate, but I couldn’t find a job. Then I went to college and did office administration and business management. But it was hard for me to find a job till now and I decided to do construction for me and my family to survive. We’ve got drivers, housemaids, they were told to apply for critical skills but they don’t qualify,” Bosso said.
The Cabinet created the Dispensation of Zimbabweans Project (DZP) in 2009. The beneficiaries of this project remained in South Africa as holders of permits issued under the subsequent ministerial exemption dispensation. With the 2010 World Cup looming, it brought skills to the construction and hospitality sectors, which needed labour at the time. People such as Bosso filled this need by specialising in these industries to make a living.
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“The minister of home affairs already decided in 2021 to terminate the ZEP visas. He simply afforded ZEP visa holders a one-year extension on the validity of their ZEP visas to legalise their stay in SA by obtaining an alternative visa — for example, work, study or relatives visas — before the end of 2022,” said Fourie.
“This extension was probably only granted because the minister of home affairs made the announcement not to extend the ZEP visas so late in 2021 and also bearing in mind the large backlog in visa applications at the DHA occasioned by the Covid-19 lockdown [the department worked at reduced capacity at its head office, where visa applications are processed].
“It will therefore not serve any purpose for ZEP holders to make submissions; they have to apply for alternative visas within our immigration system to legalise their stay in SA.”
Survival choice
Home Affairs Director-General Livhuwani Tommy Makhode asserts that Zimbabwe is in a much better state than it was when asylum was first warranted and therefore Zimbabweans can go home. However, Bosso says things may be different, but people are still suffering in his home country.
“Zimbabwe doesn’t have industries to accommodate all the people who want work; nothing is much better in Zimbabwe. Coming to SA was the best choice for us to survive. They can say whatever they want, that Zimbabwe is better, but people are suffering. For example, how can you say a country is better when they don’t have their [own]) currency?”
Fourie says activists and organisations such as the Helen Suzman Foundation have faced challenges while trying to fight the termination of the ZEP.
Minister of Home Affairs, Aaron Motsoaledi. (Photo: Gallo Images / Sunday Times / Alon Skuy)
“The minister’s decision not to extend the ZEP visa is an administrative act and several organisations have taken this decision on judicial review. All of these applications taking the minister’s decision on review have been opposed by the DHA, and Minister [Aaron] Motsoaledi has even gone as far as instituting ‘Slapp suits’ against the legal practitioners representing the ZEP holders in these matters,” she said.
“The current application for judicial review brought by the Helen Suzman Foundation is probably the best chance of success that ZEP holders might have in having their special dispensation visas extended.
Read in Daily Maverick: “Termination of Zimbabwean Exemption Permits smacks of xenophobia, says Helen Suzman Foundation”
“It is, however, also being opposed and the minister of home affairs, in addition, is trying his best to discredit the Helen Suzman Foundation in the media.
“Having regard to the nature of this application and the court roll in the Western Cape High Court where this application was launched, I doubt that this matter will be finalised before the end of 2022 unless special arrangements/agreements are made to deal with this issue on an urgent basis and for the court to allocate a date for the hearing thereof,” Fourie added. DM/MC
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African solutions to african problems: a complete mess not taking into account people’s lives. The time is short: one year and the criteria are stiff to get a visa on a critical skills basis. What about people having families and surviving through entrepreneurship ? These decisions by the DHA are knee jerk reactions to the poor border management and a response to the most extreme elements in the South African society.
I don’t agree with the government’s usual incompetent and wrong-headed approach but, why should foreign nationals have an absolute right to live here? Corruption in home affairs was partly fuelled by foreugn nationals willing to pay for fake documents. While I am sympathetic in a way, why weren’t people planning to return? I know many Zimbabweans here and in Egypt, who send money home to buy land and build houses, so why not go home? However, the government should first focus on illegal and undocumented people. The plain fact is that we don’t know who these people are: ex-Frelimo, Congolese warlords, criminals on the run? We have rights too: porous borders violate my right to safety, and the deeply sexist and homophobic attitudes don’t bode well for integration into a modern democracy, crippled as ours is.
Seems the ANC have realized they’re in for a hiding in the next elections, so blame the foreigners for the high level of unemployment (instead of their own labour destroying policies) and kick out all the foreigners in the hopes that their voter base will again vote with their hearts and not their brains so the orgy of plunder can continue.
I have already been told by a Zimbabwean casual worker that R15000 buys you a Visa at Home affairs. This is just another way to fleece honest hard working people. One feels helpless in the face of so much corruption.
This whole thing is a joke. 178,000 is a drop in the ocean of how many Zimbabweans are living and working in SA. As much as any of us have sympathy for people seeking a better life from tyranny at home, charity begins at home. We don’t need workers like how Australia, New Zealand, Canada etc are absorbing our children with open arms. We don’t have a social system that can support the housing, health and education of what is likely 4,000,000 Zimbabweans. Then add the Nigerians, Congolese, Somalians = we are carrying an enormous burden.
agree