Zim govt to engage SA on documentation of illegal Zimbabweans

THE Government will next year engage its South African counterpart with a view to conducting another joint documentation exercise for Zimbabweans living illegally in the neighbouring country.

Co-Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi said the objective was to regularise the stay of all Zimbabweans in South Africa.

In an interview on Wednesday, Minister Mohadi said the Government would request the South African government to allow for another documentation exercise.

"We have been engaging with South Africa to regularise the stay of our people and the process was suspended after the expiry of the moratorium. We will see next year if we can re-do the process. We are going to talk to them and  ask for another say six months to undertake the exercise," he said.

The Minister expressed concern at the increasing number of Zimbabweans who continue to illegally cross into South Africa.

"The problem is that people continue to cross into SA without proper papers. This process of providing people who are already in South Africa with the legal documents such as passports cannot continue forever," he said.

According to South African Home Affairs Department 275 762 applications were received during the first and second phase of the process.

The 275 762 applicants are a drop in the ocean in relation to the estimated two million Zimbabweans believed to be living illegally in South Africa.

The completion of the documentation process in the middle of last year culminated in a massive deportation of illegal Zimbabwean migrants in South Africa with nearly 43 000 having been deported through Beitbridge Border Post in the last 12 months at a rate of between 200 and 300 daily.

Minister Mohadi urged Zimbabweans living outside the country most of whom come home during the Christmas Holiday to ensure they have the required documents before returning to neighbouring countries such as South Africa. The passport office digitalised its operations a few months ago to speed up processing of passports and temporary travel documents.

"We know there would be more people going to passport offices to get travel documents before they go back to South Africa and we are hopeful with digitalisation things like the processing of documents will be faster than before," said Minister Mohadi.

Meanwhile, Minister Mohadi has appealed to motorists to exercise caution on the roads saying police would be out in full force enforcing road traffic regulations.

"I want to warn motorists against drunken driving. We are going to deploy more police personnel on the roads and people should cooperate. Most of the accidents are caused by fatigue because one would have driven all the way from South Africa and people should learn to park and rest once they feel they are tired.