The Zimbabwe Community in South Africa has started pushing Zimbabweans to take advantage of the South African government’s six-month grace period to apply for mainstream work permits.
Zimbabweans working in low-skilled occupations who are unable to obtain mainstream permits are encouraged to apply for waivers that will allow them to apply for the permits.
This development follows the South African government’s decision to extend the validity of Zimbabwean Exemption Permits (ZEPs), which were set to expire on June 30, 2023, by six months, to December 31, 2023, in order to allow the affected Zimbabwean immigrants to switch to regular visas.
In an interview with CITE, Nicholas Ngqabutho Mabhena, Chairperson of the Zimbabwe Community in South Africa, said they welcomed the reprieve but reminded migrants that they must continue seeking the appropriate work permits.
“The Zimbabwe Community in South Africa welcomes this decision and understands that this period must be hastily used by our community to migrate to the mainstream work permits. We are happy that the minister considered input made via the African Diaspora Forum (ADF), which we are an affiliate of among other organisations which may have added input on the state of applications,” he said.
Mabhena stated their organisation has also raised concerns about South Africa’s Department of Home Affairs’ VFS, the visa application centre’s poor website response rates and timeouts, the issue of booking slot unavailability, and the additional premium lounge costs, which impede the ease of applications by Zimbabwean applicants.
“We have thus instituted a survey which seeks to gather more information on the status of waiver applications and problems faced which information will constitute to be used to engage authorities to fill in the survey,” said the chairperson of the Zimbabwe Community in South Africa.
He added that the organisation also emphasised the urgency of making applications and encouraged Zimbabweans to apply for waivers especially those who were of low skill and cannot manage to migrate to mainstream permits without having certain requirements waived.
“We remind them that the waiver letter is not a permit, and they still must submit their application for a mainstream permit before the new deadline,” Mabhena stressed.
“We engage the VFS to open the Midrand and or any other ZEP dedicated facility to ease the pressure of booking slots and have asked them to give value to the fee paid by applicants. We have asked them to increase the capacity of their website and attend to the constant errors this site gives applicants, including the very low timeout period while entering among other technical glitches. We hope these engagements bear fruit and help expedite the applications.”
In August 2022, the South African government revealed that only 6 000 of the approximately 178 000 holders of ZEPs have made their representations to that country’s Home Affairs Ministry as to why they should be allowed to stay when their permits expired.
This figure was disclosed in an answering affidavit made by South Africa’s Minister of Home Affairs, Aaron Motsoaledi and Director General of the Department of Home Affairs, Livhuwani Tommy Makhode who were cited as the first and second respondents by the Helen Suzman Foundation (HSF) which is challenging the ZEPs termination as unconstitutional.
The answering affidavit was filed on August 15, 2022, at the Pretoria High Court by Makhode on behalf of both respondents.
Makhode accused HSF of failing to understand that ZEP holders are entitled to exercise the right to apply for individual exemptions even though most “ZEP holders have failed to use this remedy.”
He explained that the Home Affairs Minister decided to extend ZEPs for a period of 12 months for two purposes.
One, to allow ZEP holders to make individual representations as regards the non-extension of their exemption permits and the 12-month extension of the current ZEPs”
Two, to ZEP holders who wished to do so, the opportunity to apply for visas as contemplated by the Immigration Act.
“As a matter of law and fact, no decision was taken to terminate all ZEPs in that: (a) the ZEPs expired by effluxion of time on 31 December 2021, and (b) the ZEPs were renewed for a period of 12 months,” Makhode said.
Makhode listed that Zimbabweans had already received three exemptions.
One, in August 2014 when the minister granted Zimbabweans to make applications between October 1, 2014, and December 31, 2014, for either an extension of the exemption that had been granted to them or to reapply for such exemption if their previous applications had been unsuccessful (Dispensation of Zimbabweans Project -DZP).
The second exemption (Zimbabwe Special Permit) was granted for the period ending December 31, 2017.
“The third exemption (ZEP) differed from the first and second in that the Minister allowed only those who had been granted permits in terms of either the DZP or the ZSP to apply or renew their exemptions for a further period of four years until December 31, 2021. The latter exemption has been extended for a period of 12 months to December 31, 2022,” he said.
Makhode said what HSF sought was the Court to direct the Minister to grant a blanket fourth exemption to ZEP holders, who “were not without a remedy in the absence of a fourth a blanket exemption.”
“This is so because Section 32(1)(b) of the Immigration Act contemplates an individual applicant making an application for exactly this kind of exemption. The impugned decisions in fact allow for this as ZEP holders have an opportunity to make such application, as in terms provided for in the Minister’s decision.
The mechanism through which this application can be made is set out in Regulation 28 of the Immigration Regulations which provides that an application contemplated in Section 31(2) (b) of the Immigration Act shall be made to the Minister on Form 47, supported by reasons for the application,” he said.
