JOHANNESBURG - Thousands of Zimbabwean asylum seekers in South Africa are getting a raw deal from the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) at crown mines.
Zimbabwean nationals exiled in South Africa seeking services from the DHA have been "dumped" on an open space 200 metres from the DHA offices, where they are subject to the vagaries of local weather.
Thousands of people, including pregnant women and women with children on their backs, can be seen milling around desperately waiting for service. Queues, snaking around for up to a kilometre, are for asylum permit renewals, status applications, status appeals, interviews, lost permits and new applications.
Many have been coming for weeks only to be sent home without being served and with no explanation from the officials. Last week frustration boiled over and people marched peacefully to the offices to demand an explanation. They were met with a heavy handed reaction from guards who beat them with truncheons and showered them with pepper spray.
Some Home Affairs officials and guards are suspected of demanding payments of R150 upwards for extension of permits and R1200 for new applications. There are also people who, with the complicity of the guards, stay on site where they sleep and "hold" a line, charging R150 to move you to the front of the queue. If the officials then don’t serve you, the money is wasted.
With only 50 people seen every two days out of the thousands waiting to be served, people are often forced to carry around expired permits, risking police harassment.
The situation has led to increasing calls among foreign nationals in South Africa for an urgent review of the corruption and poor performance inherent at the Department of Home Affairs.
Post published in: Uncategorized