JOHANNESBURG -- National Commissioner of the Police South African Police Service, General Bheki Cele has urged Zimbabwean illegal immigrants in the country to ensure they obtain permits to stay in the country before expiry of the deadline to do so next month.Speaking the during a tour of police facilities as part of an exercise to ensure South Africa is safer during the festive season, Cele said every undocumented Zimbabwean should grab the opportunity granted to them by the government as they will resume deportation of undocumented immigrants as from the first of January.
We are set to resume deportation operations of illegal immigrants on the New Years Day; we wont tolerate any stories this time as we want everyone within the South African borders to be documented. We are having problems with people committing crime knowing that they are not documented and its very difficult for us to track them down, he said.
The South African government announced in September that it would by December 31 resume deporting undocumented Zimbabweans, ending an 18-month moratorium on deportations of illegal immigrants from its struggling northern neighbour.
But Pretoria said Zimbabweans already working, engaged in business or studying in South Africa will be issued with relevant permits on condition they produce valid documents to show they are citizens of Zimbabwe before expiry of the deadline.
Zimbabweans holding fake South African documents will not be arrested if they surrender these documents within the amnesty period.
But there are concerns that the process of documenting Zimbabweans in Johannesburg is going at a snails pace, with some people being forced to sleep in queues.
Civil society organisations have criticised the move to resume deportations saying it will spark a witch-hunt against Zimbabweans by state immigration officials and that it could also fuel xenophobia against foreigners.
Post published in: Zimbabwe News