Zims in SA plea for extension of documentation deadline

But the December 31st deadline looks unlikely to change after South Africas Home Affairs Minister, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, announced last week that there would be no extension. After a meeting with various rights groups concerned about the faltering documentation process, she said that the department would not resume deportations of Zim nationals until all applications made before the deadline had been processed. She however warned once again that no new applications would be considered in the New Year.

Rights groups have been calling for an extension of the deadline for sometime, warning that thousands of people will miss out on the opportunity to get relevant work or study permits. Getting the permits relies on having proper identification, in the form of a Zimbabwean passport, but the authorities are struggling to deal with the numbers requested. Only about 10 000 passports have been issued in the past two months, out of many tens of thousands.

Dlamini-Zuma has since lashed out at her Zimbabwe counterparts, blaming their failure to produce enough passports for creating the backlog on South Africas side. As a result South Africas Home Affairs are now prepared to accept receipts proving that a passport application has been made, in order for people to apply for South African permits.

This however is also having a knock on effect, with people just being issued receipts instead of passports, even if they applied for the documents two months ago. Some people, who risked journeying back to Zimbabwe to beat the queues at consular offices in South Africa, are now too afraid to cross the border with just a passport receipt.

One woman waiting in a queue at a consulate in South Africa told SW Radio Africa on Monday that people are frustrated and angry. She explained that most people were risking their jobs by waiting in queues all day, as some people have only been allowed to take a single day off work.

This is my third day in the queue, but my employers are very understanding. This is not the same for others. All we want is the deadline to be extended, we are praying this happens, the woman said.

The tension in queues has been building, and last Friday assault charges were laid against a security guard at a consular office in the Western Cape. The guard manhandled refugee activist Braam Hanekom and some Zimbabweans waiting in the chaotic queue. Hanekom, from the group PASSOP, told SW Radio Africa on Monday that he was shocked by the treatment of Zimbabweans at the consulate.

The security guards were assaulting and beating people in the queues and when I tried to speak to people, I was basically assaulted and stopped from speaking, Hanekom explained.

Hanekom added that one of the people being pushed around by the security guard was a man carrying his seven month old son.

People are being charged up to R800 for a passport, even though it costs a fraction of this to print one. We think the money could be better spent on having more people to deal with applications and better security, Hanekom said.

Hanekom continued by saying that South Africas Home Affairs will be making a dangerous and reckless move if they dont extend the deadline. He said that the threat of deportations was already adding to xenophobic tensions in the country, because local South Africans arent going to know who is legal and who isnt, theyll just want the foreigners gone.

Home Affairs is really setting South Africa up for another wave of xenophobic violence, so its really crucial that they extend this deadline and make sure the documentation process is done properly, Hanekom said.