Thousands queue for permits

South Africas Minister of Home Affairs, Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, reiterated their commitment to offering amnesty to those Zimbabweans who are living in South Africa illegally.

This process is aimed at ensuring they comply with South Africas immigration laws, lead normal lives while ending your misery of living under constant fear of deportation. Simultaneously, we reiterate our commitment to extending amnesty to all those who possess fraudulent South African identity documents on condition they hand them back to Home Affairs regional offices in the country, she told media in Pretoria.

Following her assurances, and the announcement that Zimbabweans could apply for documentation to legalise their stay at Zimbabwean embassies in South Africa, hundreds more flocked to the consulates to avoid deportation after the December 31 deadline.

We are convinced that the majority of Zimbabwean nationals resident in South Africa wish to comply with South Africas immigration laws and would want to take up the government offer arrived at through bilateral agreement with the Zimbabwean government, to lead normal lives in the country, said Dlamini Zuma. To facilitate the process of Zimbabweans regularising their stay in South Africa, 240 Home Affairs officials have been deployed to 46 regional offices across the country and this number will increase if necessary.

High turnout plan

The South African Consul General, Chris Mapanga, said that there were provisional plans to deal with the high turnout expected as part of the drive. “So far we are coping. We admit we still have to cover large numbers of people. We already have provisional plans to deal with the huge turnout in the coming months. This is a situation that we are managing and will continue to manage,” he said.

The charge to obtain a Zimbabwean passport in South Africa is R750. Despite this high charge, long queues could be seen at embassies in Johannesburg and elsewhere. Zimbabweans in the queues explained that they were keen to get in early with their applications in order to have them processed well before the deadline. Hwalima Dube of Bulawayo has a valid passport but no permit to stay in South Africa.

I have invested so much money with various banks, and I dont want to lose it. My passport is valid but I dont have a work permit. I dont want to gamble with the cut-off date of December 31. Matthias Mazarura, an engineering student at the University of Johannesburg, was among those that woke up early on Monday to queue for his permit.

I cant imagine myself being deported before completing my degree in engineering, he said. This is the main reason why I am here, but most Zimbabweans are being turned away for acquiring their asylum seekers permit after May 31. Home Affairs spokesperson, Ronnie Mamoepa, said he was overwhelmed by the reports of thousands of Zimbabweans who visited the Home Affairs departments this week.

“Presently we don’t really know the exact figure of Zimbabweans living in South Africa, but after this exercise, we will definitely be in a position to tell, he said. It is estimated that Zimbabwe has more than three million people living in South Africa, mainly refugees and asylum seekers. Despite the positive reaction to the Dispensation Project, many Zimbabweans have been turned away due to problems with their documentation.

Reuben Ndlovu came to South Africa in 1986 and has worked for the same company for twenty years. He owns a car, a house and his children are at school in South Africa. In order for him to get the correct permit to remain in the country, he has to travel back to Zimbabwe to get birth certificates for his children.

MDC snap inspection

Reports have been made that when Zimbabweans went to apply for passports at the Zimbabwe consulate in Johannesburg Central, they were told that passports could only be delivered after six weeks and not 10 days. This actually makes the South Africa Home affairs’ 31 December 2010 deadline impossible to meet.

In response to this, the MDC SA leadership, together with members of the Civic society, conducted an unannounced snap inspection of the Zimbabwe consulate on Tuesday in an effort to gauge the preparedness of the Zimbabwe government to deliver passports in time.

It is now clear that the deadlines will not the met and we appeal to Home Affairs to come up with another realistic deadline. Insisting on a deadline which will be missed by close to a million Zimbabweans is not in the best interest of anyone, a statement from the MDC-SA read. Zimbabweans hoping to benefit from the scheme have been advised to ensure that they are aware of the documentation they need in order for their application to be successful.