INTERPRETER
A South African court will decide on Tuesday whether thousands of Zimbabweans may remain in the country or may be deported.
Cape Town, South Africa – Thousands of Zimbabweans living in South Africa face an uncertain future and could be deported before their work permits expire in June 2023, following an announcement by the domestic government last year that there will be no renewals.
*Matilda Tebogo (not her real name), a 35-year-old shopkeeper, says she is stressed and nervous about what lies ahead for her and her family. The Zimbabwean national has been living and working in Cape Town for over 10 years under the Zimbabwe Extension Permit (ZEP) scheme.
Her two children are in school and South Africa is their home, she told Al Jazeera.
“Everything is unclear and we don’t know what to do,” she said. “My children know nothing about Zimbabwe. It will be hard to leave.”
She and thousands of others are beneficiaries of the Zimbabwe Renewal Permit (ZEP) instituted in 2017.
The Zimbabwean Exemption Permit Holders Association (ZEPHA) says the number of permit holders is about 160,000, but each person has an average of three to four dependents, effectively bringing the number affected to nearly two million Zimbabweans.
What is ZEP?
Circa 2008, thousands of Zimbabweans migrated to South Africa in search of better opportunities due to economic hardship in their native country.
Thousands of supporters of the main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, also said their lives were in danger because they voted against Zimbabwe’s governing party ZANU-PF – which has been in power since independence in 1980 – and have sought asylum in the country.
The wave of immigration led South Africa to introduce the Dispensation of Zimbabwean Permit, DZP, in 2009 to legalize Zimbabweans living and working in the country. In 2014, the DZP was renamed the Zimbabwe Special Permit. Three years later the name changed back to Zimbabwe Exemption Permit or ZEP. In September 2022, the Ministry of the Interior extended the permit, which was due to expire on December 31, for another six months until June 30, 2023. This was after groups such as ZEPHA challenged this decision and the government granted a 12-month extension. period of time.
What are the reactions so far?
Lawyer Simba Chitando, the legal representative of ZEPHA, filed court documents in October 2022. “If the permits expire, it will be “a disaster for the country’s economy,” he told Al Jazeera. Another human rights organization, the Helen Suzman Foundation, HSF, also challenged the government’s decision not to renew the permit saying, “Those who have scrupulously followed South African laws to live and work here under the ZEP, cannot have such permits revoked without due process, good cause and a meaningful opportunity to regularize their status.” HSF and the Zimbabwe Immigration Federation Consortium for Refugees will join ZEPHA at the Pretoria High Court. The hospitality industry is one of the largest employers of ZEP permit holders in the country. In a statement, the Federated Hospitality Association of Southern Africa (FEDHASA), the industry’s largest trade union, said failure to renew licenses would negatively affect the industry and “cause trauma and pain to people whose only sin was to legally to look for a better life for themselves and their families”.
What happens now?
Home Secretary Aaron Motsoaledi has repeatedly said there will be no further extension. “This is the end of the permit. We wrote a letter to all permit holders, also sent a text message to their telephone and also put it on the website to inform people that the permit will not be renewed. We think we’ve done enough and we’ve explained this. The ZEP holders are now pinning their hopes on the country’s justice system. Many migrants see it as a battle between David and Goliath, as the Pretoria High Court in Gauteng will have several legal experts from different migrant organizations battle it out with the South African government. A decision will be made on Tuesday. “We rely on justice, we put our trust in the courts,” Chitando said. In December, Motsoaledi told local media that 10,000 people have actually applied to legalize their stay in the country under a new scheme that has yet to be introduced. The government is also under pressure from anti-migration vigilante groups such as Operation Dudula and right-wing political parties such as the Patriotic Alliance, who want illegal migrants to return to their native countries.
