Over 5 000 Zimbabweans reportedly lost their corruptly acquired passports since a South African Home Affairs Department operation targeting such documents was launched in December last year. But a protracted process of negotiation, in which the breakaway MDC led by Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara tackled the host countrys authorities, a blanket amnesty for those affected has been granted.
Three members of the MDCs South African branch, namely Chairman Jabulani Mkhwananzi, Secretary Ngqabutho Dube and Spokesman Khumbulani Moyo, approached various South African entities in their quest for amnesty for the Zimbabweans, including Immigration, Home Affairs, the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the ruling African National Congress (ANC).
The meetings initially saw the South African government offer a conditional amnesty for a select group of Zimbabweans, but the MDC turned that down, insisting on a blanket amnesty that would see all Zimbabweans who voluntarily surrendered their the South African documents escape prosecution.
This persistence finally paid off last week, when a South African government official confirmed to The Zimbabwean ********* that the country was granting amnesty to all affected Zimbabweans.
All Zimbabweans who are using South African documents will not be arrested if they voluntarily surrender them at our Home Affairs offices before December 31. We will also not take away their businesses and any property they have acquired during the duration of their stay here, said government spokesman Themba Maseko in an exclusive interview this week.
We therefore urge them to take this opportunity to surrender the documents because after that, those caught using the documents will be arrested and charged with fraud.
Maseko said after surrendering their South African documents, the Zimbabweans would be given a chance to apply for Zimbabwean passports, after which they will be given South African permits.
Dube praised the South African government for negotiating in good faith and called on Zimbabweans to take advantage of the amnesty to formalise their stay in the neighbouring country.
To us this is a great victory for the people we represented as our constituency in this regard because what we fought for has finally been achieved, he said.
I am very happy and would like to thank the South African government for this positive outcome, which shows that they were negotiating in good faith and really took time to look at the problems affecting Zimbabweans and the few choices our people had other than taking up these documents. I would now like to urge my fellow Zimbabweans to move fast and do as is now required of them.
With the MDC victory, one wonders how easy life would be for Zimbabweans in exile had their own Ambassadors (all Zanu PF) put more of their efforts into defending the people they represent than doing public relations for President Robert Mugabe.
Post published in: News