Home Affairs says more than 1 000 applications are being received daily. From Moneyweb.
The Department of Home Affairs has announced a further six-month reprieve, until December 2023, for Zimbabwean Exemption Permits (ZEP) holders.
This follows a previous six-month exemption that was due to expire on 30 June 2023. This gives some 178 000 ZEP holders a further six months to apply for alternative visas allowing them to remain and work in South Africa.
Read: Home Affairs in the dock over termination of ZEP system
Lecturers on exemption permits ‘let go’ by SA government
In a statement issued on Wednesday (7 June), the department said that, since issuing the previous six-month permit extension in September 2022, significant developments have taken place.
“The minister [of Home Affairs, Aaron Motsoaledi] has approved thousands of waiver applications of the affected Zimbabwean nationals. This has significantly increased the number of visa and waiver applications,” says the statement. The department says it is now dealing with these applications.
The processing of visa applications has been outsourced to VFS Global, which reportedly receives between 1 000 and 1 500 visa applications daily from affected Zimbabweans. Home Affairs says it has employed more staff to handle the increase in applications.
Read: Here’s what the Zimbabwean embassy says about the expiry of the ZEP
Explaining the reasons for the permit extension, Home Affairs says it took into consideration “submissions received from the affected Zimbabwean nationals, relevant officials of the Department of Home Affairs and other interested parties and decided to issue another Immigration Directive, extending the validity of Zimbabwean Exemption Permits for a further period of six months, ending on 31 December 2023.”
With the previous deadline of June 2023 just weeks away, the status of 178 000 ZEP holders was left in limbo. The government’s decision to suspend the ZEP system is the focus of no fewer than three court challenges. Those cases were heard in April, although the court has yet to issue its judgment.
Read: Zimbabwean prisoners want to be paroled and repatriated
The cases were bought by the Helen Suzman Foundation, Zimbabwe Immigration Federation and ZEP Holders Association (Zepha). These cases asked the court to set aside the decision to terminate the ZEP system as unlawful and invalid. At the same time, Zepha went further in seeking to award all ZEP holders with permanent residence in SA. All Truck Drivers Forum and Allied South Africa brought a fourth case, which asked the court to declare the entire ZEP system invalid.
The ZEP system was introduced in 2009 as a way of regularising the status of Zimbabweans fleeing to SA for political or economic reasons. It allows permit holders to live, work and study in SA.
This is the third time the ZEP deadline has been extended. The ZEP system was suspended in November 2021 by Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi, then extended until December 2022, then to 30 June 2023, and now again to December 2023.
“The 7 June 2023 decision by the Minister of Home Affairs to extend the ZEP for a third time proves that the South African government’s initial decision to end exemptions was ill-conceived, unreasonable, procedurally unfair, unconstitutional, and thereby unlawful. The legality of that decision, including the subsequent extensions, is currently before the Pretoria High Court,” says a statement issued by Advocate Simba Chitando, representing Zepha.
Zepha adds that it is concerned with the minister’s report that desperate ZEP holders are making thousands of waiver applications at huge expense.
ZEP holders are now required to apply for a waiver and an alternative visa. A copy of a waiver sent to Moneyweb merely informs the applicant that she has the right to apply for a visa. Chitando says this is another money-making scheme as hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans will now have to dole out upwards of R1 000 for each application.
“A waiver only allows ZEP holders to make yet another application for a visa provided for in the Immigration Act. There is no lawful reason why ZEP holders should apply twice for one visa or permit. ZEP holders ought to be able to make a single application, provided by the Immigration Act, for a visa or permit appropriate to their circumstances. This issue has also been put before the High Court. The financial exploitation of ZEP holders who have to pay, by the South African government, must come to an end,” he says.
ZEP holders have been in SA for more than 10 years, and they argue that the Immigration Act and applicable regulations allow them to apply for permanent residence after spending five years in the country.
“Zepha calls upon the public to remain calm and respect the rule of law as we wait to hear from the Pretoria High Court,” says Zepha in a statement.
