Why South Africa will not renew Zimbabweans' special permits

Over a quarter of a million Zimbabweans are living in suspense waiting for the South African Government to make a final announcement on what will happen to the special Zimbabwe Dispensation work permits issued in September 2010.

The South African government is in limbos with renewing the permits specifically because of the precedence that it set on itself when the permits were initially issued. It is on record that there was heavy debates and resistance from opposition parties, ordinary South Africans and other foreigners resident in South Africa when the permits were first issued.

It must be noted that when the South African government made out the call for the permits it was faced with an immigration crisis where millions of Zimbabweans were resident in South Africa on suspected forged South African identity documents. In trying to come up with a solution, the government invited all Zimbabweans with the fraudulent South African identities to come forward and surrender them under an amnesty where no questions on the source of the documents were going to be asked.

Unlike what the government expected the response was very poor. The very people who they had targeted to come forward did not come forward. Very few people responded and surrendered the South African identity documents. The majority of those that responded were people who already had been provided with political asylum temporary permits by the South African government and very few who did not have any documentation at all. To make matters worse the Zmbabwean government in its desperation celebrated into the opening by the South African government and opened registrar general's offices in the foreign country. Zimbabweans were invited to get new documents from birth certificate to identity card to passports. Because of the time frame that was allowed the process was weakened of thorough vetting. Evidence is there that several none Zimbabweans especially Mozambiqueans and Nigerians and some Malawians and Zambians found themselves corruptly getting Zimbabwean documentation and getting passports and permits.

Initially when the permits were discussed, the South African government wanted to make them five year permits which would have given the applicants a chance to apply for a permanent residence status obviously in recognition of the time that the people had lived in South Africa on the illegal documents. However, due to pressure from the opposition the government reduced the permits to four years and left the renewal close unspecified.

With the coming of new immigration laws in South Africa, the permits given to Zimbabweans now completely fall off the provisions of the gazetted residence permits in that country. The only permit now available in SA is the Permanent Residence Permit and the rest being Visas and such visas are applied for at the foreign person's country of citizen and not in South Africa. The only likely visa that may be available for Zimbabweans hoping to stay and work in South Africa under the current laws will be the Special Skills Visa which a majority of the 250 000 special permits holders will fail to meet.

If the debates in the South African parliament are anything to go by, opposition parties are waiting on the sideline to see how the ruling ANC government is going to flout its own new rules and issue Zimbabweans with permits outside the stipulated ones. Further complications are coming through from other Africans resident in South Africa particularly those from crisis ridden states like Somalia, Eritria and Ethiopia who are questioning why Zimbabweans are being accorded the special favour when according to them Zimbabwe "is at peace and enjoying relative democracy".

Ordinary South African citizens are also putting pressure on the government threatening xenophobic attacks if Zimbabweans are allowed to continue staying in the country and according to them taking their jobs and services. The South Africans strongly believe that Zimbabweans have every chance in the world to go back to Zimbabwe and vote out the ZANU PF government if Zimbabweans feel that the ZANU PF government is failing them.

In the meantime, the South African Police Service and Immigration officials have already started sporadic raids and stop and search blitz in most major urban centres of the country arresting and deporting any foreigners found with improper documentation or none at all. Several Zimbabweans in Cape Town and Johannesburg were arrested and sent for repatriation in the recent weeks.

Incidentally, the notorious Lindela Repatriation Centre in Western Johannesburg is currently under going major refurbishments and extensions which could spell a warning that the SA immigration officials are gearing themselves for action soon. Zimbabwean Minister of Home Affairs has been holding talks with the South African counterparts but is suspiciously not in a state to make any meaningful explanation of what has come out of those meetings.

So the hard truth of the matter could just be that the South African government will be soon announcing a 12 to at most 24 months extension of the permits giving Zimbabweans in South Africa notice to leave the republic.