South Africa’s Cabinet has approved sweeping changes to the country’s immigration system, introducing a points-based framework for visas and citizenship that prioritises skilled workers and economic contributors.
While the government hails the reforms as a modernising step forward, Zimbabwean migrants already living in South Africa fear they could be left behind.
The new white paper on citizenship, immigration and refugee protection consolidates decades of fragmented legislation into a single piece of law.
For the first time, South Africa will assess both work visa applicants and citizenship seekers based on what they can contribute, not how long they have been in the country.
Home Affairs Minister Dr Leon Schreiber said the changes will replace an “arbitrary, subjective and often highly inefficient” system that left too much power in the hands of individual officials.
“The general principle we want to introduce is one of objectivity, one of merit-based assessment, and using a points based system is the clearest way to do that,” Schreiber said to South African media.
The white paper also introduces a significant shift in how South Africa handles refugee claims.
Under the new “first safe country” principle, asylum seekers who have already passed through other safe countries or received protection elsewhere will not be allowed to claim refugee status in South Africa.
Dr Schreiber said the change is about sharing responsibility more fairly across the region.
“What we’ve seen over many years is there is a phenomenon of people picking and choosing South Africa as the only destination where they want to submit a claim for asylum, and that really is taking a toll on our society,” he said.
“If you have asylum in a different country or if you have travelled through multiple safe countries that qualify in terms of those UN instruments, we are not going to then accept a situation where we are the destination of choice, because by definition, if you are a refugee, you are fleeing for your life.”
The minister acknowledged South Africa will need to enter into bilateral agreements with neighbouring countries to designate which nations are considered safe.
Under the new system, applicants earn points based on their qualifications, skills, financial investments, and social contributions.
The old approach, which was waiting out enough years in South Africa could eventually lead to citizenship, is scrapped.
Deputy Home Affairs Minister Njabulo Nzuza explained that the specific skills in demand will shift over time depending on what South Africa needs.
“Right now you need a lot of engineers, you need a lot of AI technicians and so on,” Nzuza said to South African media.
“We work with the Department of Higher Education and Training to tell us which skills at a given period are amongst the high ranking. What you might have as a rare skill today, in about a year or so you will find that South Africa will have accumulated those particular skills.”
The most immediate anxiety is felt among Zimbabweans living in South Africa under the Zimbabwe Exemption Permit (ZEP).
ZEP is a special arrangement that has allowed Zimbabweans to live and work legally in the country for years and they are among the largest group of foreign nationals in South Africa, with many relying on the permit.
This permit was always intended as a temporary arrangement and has been renewed multiple times over the years, leaving thousands of Zimbabwean families in legal limbo.
Chairperson of the Zimbabwean Community in South Africa, Nicholas Ngqabutho Mabhena, said the shift to a points-based system could disadvantage long-term residents who do not meet the new skills criteria.
“You will have a Zimbabwean, say an electrical engineer, who comes in 2026 in South Africa immediately applies for permanent residence or citizenship but a Zimbabwean who has been here since 1994, cannot be a citizen of South Africa or hold a permanent residence they will still remain in the ZEP because they do not have the necessary skills for them to qualify,” he said in an interview with CITE.
Mabhena warned without special measures, many ZEP holders could struggle to qualify for permanent residence or other visas.
“It is going to be problematic for the ZEP holders if nothing is done, if there’s no special arrangement to assist them. Based on this white paper, beyond the ZEP, ZEP holders will not qualify to be a resident in South Africa, whether on general visa and so forth, because the general work visa is going to be based on a point system,” he said.
South Africa’s deputy minister acknowledged the concerns but said the government has been clear the ZEP was never meant to be permanent.
“The exemption permit itself was meant to be a temporary arrangement,” Nzuza said, urging permit holders to explore legal pathways if they wish to remain..
“If they seek to stay within the country, then they must apply for other forms of entrance. They can apply for permanent residents and so on and all those applications will be looked at on merit. It’s not going to be a blanket approach where you say all ZEP holders are now permanent residents. Each and every person must apply, and then we determine if they qualify.”
Another major change in South Africa’s immigration rules is the introduction of an annual application window for citizenship.
Instead of accepting applications throughout the year, Home Affairs will now collect them over a set period, for example, from January to March.
South Africa’s minister, said this will bring predictability to a system that has been overwhelmed.
“South Africa has been really inundated by applications. We don’t know, as Home Affairs, how many citizenship applications we will receive in a particular year, it’s completely arbitrary,” Dr Schreiber said.
“If we can collect applications between a certain period of time, we are then able to adjudicate them properly.”
The white paper also creates a citizenship advisory panel that will help guide decisions on who should be granted citizenship, adding another layer of oversight in a department that was ‘notoriously’ abused during the state capture era.
“We saw during the state capture years how Home Affairs was abused to aid the Guptas illegally,” Dr Schreiber said.
“This will really bring that level of objectivity into the system.”
The deputy minister described the white paper as a long-overdue overhaul, coming more than three decades after South Africa’s “1994 breakthrough.”
“Back then, there was not much experience in terms of how the global environment operates. Now we are very clear on what the threats are that come with open-ended legislation,” Nzuza said.
“We are pushing these reforms. Indeed they are far reaching. They make space for the digital transformative agenda that we have as a department. But most importantly it creates a safe and secure environment so that we attract the skills that we need into the country and promote regular migration of people and make it impossible for people to abuse our laws to enter the country illegally and continue to stay in the country illegally using various aspects of the laws. So those are tightened up now.”
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