After the statement by the home government last year that there will be no renewal, thousands of Zimbabweans living in South Africa now face an unclear future and the possibility of deportation before the June 2023 expiration of their work permits.
*A 35-year-old shopkeeper by the name of Matilda Tebogo (not her real name) claims to be anxious and stressed out about the future for her and her family. Under the Zimbabwe Extension Permit (ZEP) programme, the Zimbabwean native has been residing and working in Cape Town for more than ten years.
She told Al Jazeera that her two kids are settled in school and call South Africa home.
“Everything is unclear and we don’t know what to do,” she said. “My children know nothing about Zimbabwe. It will be difficult to leave.”
The 2017-instituted Zimbabwean Extension Permit (ZEP) programme has helped her and thousands of others.
According to the Zimbabwean Exemption Permit Holders Association (ZEPHA), there are around 160,000 permit holders, but since each person has an average of three to four dependents, the total number of Zimbabweans who are impacted is close to two million.
What is ZEP?
Due to economic problems in their native Zimbabwe, hundreds of Zimbabweans relocated to South Africa in 2008 in quest of better possibilities.
Hundreds of supporters of Zimbabwe’s main opposition party, the ZANU-PF, who had been in charge since the country’s independence in 1980, claimed that their lives were in danger and that they needed shelter in the nation.
Due to the increase in immigration, South Africa issued the Dispensation of Zimbabwean Permit (DZP) in 2009 to make it legal for Zimbabweans to reside and work there.
The Zimbabwe Special Permit replaced the DZP as of 2014. The name changed again three years later to Zimbabwe Exemption Permit or ZEP.
The Department of Home Affairs renewed the permission, which was set to expire on December 31, for an additional six months, until June 30, 2023, in September 2022.
This came about after organisations like ZEPHA contested the government’s decision and requested a 12-month grace period.
What have the reactions been so far?
Advocate Simba Chitando, ZEPHA’s legal representative, filed court papers in October 2022. “If the permits expire, it will be “a disaster for the country’s economy”, he told Al Jazeera.
The Helen Suzman Foundation, another human rights organisation, criticized the government’s decision to not renew the permit, stating that “those who have scrupulously followed South Africa’s laws in order to live and work here under the ZEP cannot have such permits terminated without fair process, good reason, and a meaningful opportunity to regularize their status.”
At the Pretoria High Court, ZEPHA will be joined by HSF and the Consortium for Refugees of the Zimbabwe Immigration Federation.
One of the main industries in which ZEP permit holders are employed is hospitality. The industry’s largest labour union, FEDHASA, said in a statement that the non-renewal of licences would hurt the sector and “bring stress and pain to people whose only transgression was to legitimately seek a better life for themselves and their families.”
What comes next?
Aaron Motsoaledi, the minister of home affairs, has reaffirmed that there will be no additional extensions. “The permit is now expired. To let individuals know that the permit won’t be extended, we have written a letter to every permit holder, sent SMS messages to their phones, and posted information online.
The nation’s legal system is now the focus of the ZEP holders’ ambitions.
Many migrants regard it as a David vs. Goliath struggle as the South African government and several legal experts from various migrant organizations square off before the Pretoria High Court in Gauteng.
A ruling will be given on Tuesday. “We trust the court process, we put our faith in the courts,” Chitando said.
In December, Motsoaledi told local media that 10,000 people had really filed to legalise their presence in the nation under a new, as-yet-unintroduced programme.
Right-wing political parties like the Patriotic Alliance and anti-immigration vigilante organisations like Operation Dudula have also put pressure on the government by calling for illegal immigrants to return to their countries of origin.
Source: AL JAZEERA
