In under 30 days, South Africa is set to either mass deport or give another reprieve to thousands upon thousands of undocumented Zimbabweans who have been living in the country for years, the majority of whom were illegals.
This will depend on the outcome of the court judgement pending in the Pretoria High Court in which the permit holders under the umbrella Zimbabwe Exemption Permits Holders( ZEPHA) underscored the need for the permits to be converted to permanent residence.
But the government flatly refused and introduced yet another regime for permits.
The Minister of Home Affairs in the South African government Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, previously a minister of health and a medical doctor himself, has admitted he is a busy man daily signing thousands of waiver applications lodged at his office.
He says he does not sign for visa applications as it is the prerogative of he Director General (DG) in the ministry and a committee of experts roped in to scrutinise visa applications for people intending to stay in the country.
Ordinarily, he said people with critical skills had to approach the department of labour accompanied by supporting documents from the employer proving that they hold indespensable skills that are not easily obtainable amongst South Africans.
” In the past foreigners with critical skills had to go to our department of labour with documents from whoever employs you to prove that you are doing special work, they would then get a certificate to confirm that it is indeed a rare skill, ” he said in an interview with Clement Manyathela of Talk Radio 702 on the 30th of May.
From there, applicants would approach the Department of Home Affairs for permits but this route has been done away with as it has been arduous.
It took lots of time as people waited months upon months not knowing whether their papers have been received or at what stage of the application process were they at.
The government, he said then introduced a system of waivers where applicants simply log onto the government system known as the VFS Global website.
Applicants ordinarily log in their details and supporting documents but nonetheless there have been concerns about the schedule for interview dates for applicants.
The system is said to be slow and marred by uncertainties in scheduling dates for interviews and applicants have been travelling to far-off places to personally hand in papers manually discarding the system.
Applicants have raised issues citing delays. Apparently, some applicants have been waiting for months on end to know whether they have been successful but the minister charged he was unaware there have been Zimbabweans facing that challenge in the application process.
Dr Motsoaledi said the application process for permits has never stopped and has been a work in progress despite a court challenge in the Pretoria High Court where permit holders and a gamut of civil society organisations including the Hellen Suzman Foundation have challenged the government’s decision to arbitrarily terminate the longevity of Zimbabwe Exemption Permits( ZEP) that were given freely to an estimated 170 000 Zimbabweans who have been staying and working in South Africa.
The case was heard by Pretoria High Court Judge Colleen Collis who reserved judgement despite the looming deadline. Their arguments and counterarguments came from the State, All Truck Drivers Forum and Allied South Africa. The holder of the ZEPs has until June 31st living in South Africa after which they are no longer eligible to stay in the host country.
The South African government offered a window of opportunity to these permit holders to change and convert their ZEPs to be in line with a vast array of other 17 permit criteria on offer.
“We are receiving boxes and boxes of applications, that process has never stopped as we wait for the decision by the courts, ” he said.
The government, he said was also waiting for the court judgement as this process was multi-faceted and government could not do it arbitrarily. “There is no judgement yet and I cannot second-guess the outcome of the court decision but I hope it is soon enough,” Dr Motsoaledi said.
“There are thousands of applications and I receive them on a daily basis. I am saying so because I sign them myself,” he said “We have been giving thousands of waivers, but we can’t give it to someone who did not apply on a silver platter , we can’t,” he said.” We cannot be emotional on this issue but the outcome depends on the objective factors put on my table,” Dr Motsoaledi said.
Meanwhile, judgement from the Pretoria High Court is expected within the next 30 days and Zimbabweans will know their fate.
The minister could not be drawn into giving the exact number of ZEP holders who have applied. He said it was still work in progress and there were his juniors who had the correct facts at hand.
The ZEP came about in 2009 under the Dispensation of Zimbabwe’s Project mulled by the South African government. The project enabled an estimated 250 000 Zimbabweans in the country illegally to regularise their status enabling them to live , work and study. However the scheme was renamed the Zimbabwean Exemption Permit in 2014 and the Zimbabwean Exemption Permit in 2017.
The South African government then took everyone by surprise when it announced the permits will no longer be renewed hence the furore that spilt into the courts with aggrieved camps feeling they were being short-changed by the government.
There were no consultations, it was a sweeping decision unilaterally done without considering the input of affected parties.
For Zimbabweans, all eyes will be on the Pretoria High Court in the news few days. It remains a mystery how the court case will pan out but without a doubt, the ruling will be felt far and wide.
An estimated three million Zimbabweans live in South Africa, the majority of whom are undocumented. They now face a bleak future should South Africa decides to send them packing when this grace period to renew their permits expires on June 31st this year.
For thousands, the prospect of going back to Zimbabwe is not appealing. Many have lived for over a decade in South Africa running away from Mugabe’ s tyranny and Emmerson Munangagwa’ s continued political hegemony.
Thousands have started families. Many have children taking up school in South Africa and for thousands of the children, South Africa is the only home they know.
Meanwhile, in Zimbabwe, President Emmerson Mnangagwa has proclaimed August 23rd 2023 as the date for general elections.
He has also earmarked the 2nd October 2023 as the date for a run-off for the election of the office of the President if such a poll becomes necessary in terms of the Electoral Act.
The majority of Zimbabweans who have been staying in South Africa have not been registered to vote.
An estimated 6 million voters have been registered to participate in the elections but there have been concerns about the voters’ roll with a considerable number of registered voters either missing from the roll or nicodemously transferred to other constituencies without their knowledge.
The Zimbabwean opposition parties have been citing an uneven playing field prior to the plebiscite with opposition figures arrested and detained for months and rallies disrupted by partisan police. A mass deportation of Zimbabweans from South Africa will only put pressure on the Zimbabwean authorities, whose glaring failures on the economic front have been somewhat made lighter through remittances from the diaspora.
Most families in Zimbabwe have been surviving on remittances from loved ones working in the diaspora including South Africa. The majority of Zimbabweans have been working in South Africa as unskilled labour doing menial jobs as gardeners and construction workers. Most Zimbabwean nurses have been finding solace in Europe as care workers. What happens next is anyone’s guess but should South Africa tip the scale in its favour to deport Zimbabweans en masse, the results are catastrophic and ghastly to contemplate.
Image Credit: REUTERS/Mike Hutchings
