JOHANNESBURG Zimbabwean political parties and civil rights groups in South Africa have formed a joint forum to assist those trying to obtain permits in the neighbouring country.South Africa, which recently ended an 18-month-long moratorium for Zimbabweans, introduced free work, study and business permits for Zimbabweans, but early setbacks like long queues and being turned away have hampered progress in applications for the permits, whose cut-off date is December 31.
Those who would still have not regularised their stay by then will be deported back to their home country after that date.
In a bid to tackle the impediments and ensure a speedy processing of applications, the organisations, which met the South African Home Affairs officials last Wednesday, announced the formation of the joint forum early this week.
The joint forum will first discuss some of the key issues that are of concern to us, including those of property owned by Zimbabweans who have been using South African documents, the loans they got from local banks and their business investments, said Ngqabutho Dube, whose MDC-M party is also part of the forum.
The Joint Forum also includes South Africas Home Affairs, the Zimbabwe Embassy, MDC-T and a number of Zimbabwean civil society organisations based in South Africa.
South Africas Director-general of Home Affairs, Mkuseli Apleni, was, before the end of this week, expected to visit Home Affairs Regional Offices, where queues of Zimbabweans have been growing by the day, raising fears that the three months deadline of permit processing might not be met.
The purpose of my visits will be to address the challenges that people face when applying for permits at our offices, said Apleni during an interview with ****The Zimbabwean.
If need be, we might be forced to increase the number of centres from the current 46 and the workforce. Our wish is to see the process through before the set deadline and we will do everything in our ability to ensure that happens without causing unnecessary inconveniences to those seeking such assistance.
South African officials are currently failing to cope with the system, which is being done on a geographical basis and Apleni said these were some of the issues at hand during his visits.
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