Zimbabwe Exemption Permit (ZEP) holders in South Africa say they are living in constant distress, facing unlawful arrests, blocked access to services and growing uncertainty over their future, amid concerns that government efforts to transition them to mainstream visas exclude thousands of vulnerable migrants who do not qualify under existing immigration categories.
During a ZEP and Lesotho Exemption Permit (LEP) public consultations webinar for the Eastern Cape province organised by South Africa’s Department of Home Affairs (DHA) on Wednesday, affected migrants and legal representatives said many permit holders were detained by police and border officials who claim ZEP permits are invalid unless accompanied by proof of waiver applications, despite government extensions remaining in place.
Participants said thousands have been trapped in legal limbo since the government first announced the termination of the ZEP programme in 2021.
Although permit holders were later granted extensions and opportunities to apply for waivers and mainstream visas, many said the process has failed to address the realities of people who depend on the permits.
The ZEP programme was introduced to regularise the stay of Zimbabweans who had fled economic and political instability in Zimbabwe.
Over the years, many holders established families, businesses and careers in South Africa, with some having lived in the country for more than 15 years.
However, speakers during the consultations argued that despite complying with legal requirements for years, ZEP holders are increasingly treated as undocumented migrants.
Participants lamented that the proposed migration to mainstream visas mainly benefits skilled workers, leaving behind domestic workers, farm labourers and informal business owners who were legally accommodated under the ZEP system but do not qualify for conventional work visas.
Others highlighted the plight of families where both parents are legally documented under ZEP, yet children born in South Africa remain undocumented and effectively “illegal” because of administrative and immigration barriers.
Immigration lawyer, Nyeleti Baloyi, said one of the major problems was the apparent lack of understanding among police and border officials regarding court judgments and directives relating to ZEP holders.
“From my clients that I consult with on a regular basis, I have been made aware that the police and other security agents seem not to be aware of the judgments,” Baloyi said.
“There seems to be a lack of understanding, or maybe the information has not trickled down to the different security clusters, SAPS and other security agents, including the Border Management Authority (BMA).”
Baloyi said the situation worsened after the government encouraged ZEP holders to apply for waivers to transition into mainstream visas.
“What has happened is when the minister announced that ZEP holders and LEP holders could apply for waivers, it seemed that that offer created a crisis for ZEP permits in the sense that at the borders or whenever they run into the police, they were told that their ZEP permits were not valid unless they were accompanied by the application for waiver,” she said.
Baloyi warned that the confusion had exposed permit holders to arrests and harassment.
“My concern is the fact that this has led ZEP holders and LEP holders quite vulnerable to arrests,” she said.
She said there appeared to be “inconsistency, particularly with regards to the police and the BMA.”
Memory Gatsi, Secretary General of the ZEP Immigration and Refugees Network, said many ZEP holders were distressed as she described the emotional strain and exhaustion permit holders faced.
“I am going to speak as somebody who’s been living in South Africa for the past 15 years, since the ZEP dispensation started,” she said.
“We would also like to say thank you so much to the South African government for extending this gesture. That has helped us a lot to stay in the country and also make meaningful contributions in our communities.”
Gatsi said despite public perceptions that Zimbabweans were burdening South Africa, many ZEP holders had contributed significantly to the economy and communities.
“When I am looking at myself I can say, as much as South Africa is concerned, I’ve given more than what I have taken,” she said.
However, she said life since 2021 had become unbearable.
“As a community from when it expired in 2021, it has been very hard living with extensions, without a sticker for the past six to seven years,” she said.
She explained that many institutions failed to recognise extension directives issued by the Department of Home Affairs because permit stickers in passports still reflected expired dates.
“Imagine at work, anything to say my permit is valid via extension when the permit itself, the sticker shows 2021, the employers wouldn’t understand it, and then you go to the traffic department, they wouldn’t understand it,” she said.
“You go through the border, some of the authorities, they don’t understand it. You get through the police, they don’t understand it. So we’ve been so distressed.”
Gatsi said the organisation had repeatedly intervened in cases where ZEP holders were detained despite possessing valid extension notices.
“We’ve dealt with unlawful detention. We’ve had to go as leadership to the police station to bail people out all along,” she said.
She added the prolonged uncertainty had already pushed some Zimbabweans out of South Africa.
“The number 178 000 for ZEP holders has been like that since the expiry in 2021,” she said.
“Most of the ZEP holders have migrated to Europe and quite a number of them went back home because they were fearing for their lives, because of the utterances and all the stuff that they faced in the communities and at work as well.”
Others, she said, had died during the prolonged process.
“I lost my husband during the course of the past five years and he was a ZEP holder,” Gatsi said emotionally.
“Last weekend we buried another one who happened to be the vice chairperson of our organisation.”
She appealed for a permanent solution for the remaining permit holders, arguing that many had already spent more than a decade and a half building lives in South Africa.
Gatsi said many Zimbabweans had tried to follow every lawful instruction from authorities but still found themselves trapped.
“We were advised to apply for waivers, we paid for waivers and few of us had the waivers,” she said.
“We were instructed to apply for general work permits, we suffered rejections while we’ve been tormented so much while trying to follow lawful instruction.”
She said many ZEP holders no longer had meaningful ties to Zimbabwe.
“Our children have got no other place that they call their home besides South Africa,” she said.
“We are not saying we don’t want to go back home, but you will discover that over and above what people may say, the push factors that drove people to South Africa are still the same.”
Linos Nyangadope from MZ Attorneys argued the transition from ZEPs to mainstream visas was fundamentally flawed because it failed to account for the diversity of people covered under the original permit system.
“When ZEP was introduced, it mainly included study, business and work,” he said.
“There was no criteria to say who qualifies to get ZEP.”
As a result, he said, both skilled and unskilled workers were accommodated under the programme.
“But now this migration to mainstream visas is not catering for all the people who are on ZEP. It will be catering to those who have got skills.,” Nyangadope said.
He said thousands of Zimbabweans employed in sectors such as domestic work and agriculture did not qualify under the current visa pathways.
“You will find that on ZEP, we have people who are domestic workers, who are working in farms,” he said.
“So the waiver that was given does not cater for those people.”
He also pointed to contradictions affecting business owners operating legally under ZEP permits.
“You might find we have people that are on ZEP to run a business. This waiver does not cater for them,” he said.
“They are running businesses under ZEP but there is nothing that is covering them in the migration to a mainstream visa.”
Nyangadope said another overlooked issue involved children born to ZEP holders.
“There are people on ZEP that were married ZEP and ZEP, but there are children that were born. You might find out that they are here with the parents, but they are illegal, the parents are legal,” he said.
According to Nyangadope, many children cannot regularise their status because parents themselves only possess extension directives rather than renewed permits.
“These extensions are just a directive as people on ZEP don’t have a permit that they can use,” he said.
As a result, families are unable to access basic services.
“You might find out that ZEP holders cannot do anything at the bank, they cannot change jobs, or they cannot apply for a visa for their children because they are regarded as people who do not have permits,” he said.
Nyangadope further highlighted delays affecting those married to South African citizens.
“We do have a couple of ZEP holders who are married to South African citizens,” he said.
“They have already moved, applied for visas, to move to mainstream visas, spousal visas (Section) 11.6 but we have people who are waiting for those visas since 2022. Up to now, there’s no outcome.”
Nyangadope argued instead of repeated blanket extensions, the government should allow ZEP holders to renew actual permits while authorities assess who still qualifies.
“I think people on ZEP should be given to renew the permits and be given an actual permit. “That allows them until 2027,” he said.
He said this would also allow the government to exclude those who may have committed crimes while protecting law-abiding permit holders.
“When we say let’s apply and renew, the department will now be able to streamline those who no longer qualify to be on ZEP because they have committed a crime or they have breached the laws,” he said.
He also urged authorities to recognise the economic contributions made by Zimbabweans.
“There are ZEP holders who are running businesses and they are employing people from Zimbabwe, South Africa and other countries,” he said.
Amanda Mudarikwa, another participant, said the debate around immigration often ignored the human realities facing mixed-nationality families and children.
Mudarikwa, who was previously married to a South African citizen, said her 16-year-old daughter was being disadvantaged despite being South African.
“I have a South African child who can’t even get an ID, but she’s South African and she can’t get the opportunities a South African deserves simply because she has a Zimbabwean parent,” she said.
She said discussions around migration should not reduce people to statistics or political talking points.
“When you take the whole issue and make it one ball and just judge from one place and not consider each individual circumstances… we are really struggling,” she said.
Mudarikwa said she was not dependent on state support and contributed to the economy through her own business.
“I run my own business, I make my own money and I contribute towards taxes as expected,” she said.
“But then I’m also considering that there’s this South African child who needs the basic rights that a South African deserves and is struggling to get them simply because her mother is Zimbabwean.”
She urged authorities to remember the humanitarian dimension of the issue.
“Let’s remember the children who are suffering simply because I am Zimbabwean,” she said.
Ngqabutho Nicholas Mabhena, Secretary of the African Diaspora Forum and chairperson of the Zimbabwe Community in South Africa, said the organisation’s position was not confrontational but humanitarian.
“The appeal that this group is making is that while it clearly understands that the minister is right… to document any Zimbabwean, the appeal is to say, considering the number of years that they have spent in South Africa, they have contributions,” he said.
“Some of them are now in their mid-50s. They have children that are born in South Africa.”
Mabhena said many Zimbabweans had become deeply rooted in South African society and should be considered for continued residence.
“The best kind of request is that they were to be considered… to continue living in the Republic of South Africa,” he said.
At the same time, he acknowledged South Africa’s own socio-economic challenges, including rising unemployment.
“We understand what was said earlier on about the unemployment that is rising in South Africa,” he said.
“But we are talking with people that also have been contributing to the South African economy.”
The consultations form part of an increasingly contentious debate around migration, labour and identity in South Africa, where foreign nationals have frequently become targets of political rhetoric and xenophobic sentiment.