Kamogelo Olaitan
More than 178,000 Zimbabweans who held Zimbabwe Exemption Permits (ZEP) have six months to sort out their immigration paperwork or face deportation.
Last November, the Cabinet announced the special ZEPs would be cancelled by 31 December 2021. A 12-month grace period was granted to allow them time to apply for the correct documents to remain in the country.
ZEPs were introduced in 2008 when a lot of Zimbabweans flooded Mzansi, applying for asylum and refugee status during the political and economic turmoil in their country.
Two weeks ago, the Helen Suzman Foundation took legal action to challenge Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi on the discontinuation of ZEPs.
“It is not the position of the foundation that those migrants who are in South Africa unlawfully should be entitled to remain, nor even that the ZEP must continue in perpetuity,” the foundation noted in a statement.
“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 regularise their status. It is what our constitutional order demands.”
In response, Motsoaledi said Zimbabweans should ignore the false hope created by the foundation and adhere to the procedures outlined by the department in various public notices and communications.
“If the Helen Suzman Foundation has the interests of Africans in the continent at heart, I expect it to play its constructive role in assisting the affected Zimbabwean nationals to apply for one or the other visas provided for in the Immigration Act,” Motsoaledi said in a statement.
Clayson Monyela, spokesperson for the Department of International Relations and Cooperation, wrote on Twitter that out of 178,412 ZEP holders only 2,301 visa and 3,014 visa waiver applications have been received by the Department of Home Affairs.
