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'We can't stop deportations,' says Home Affairs
22 Apr 2014 at 15:56hrs | Views
The deputy minister of Home Affairs, Ziyambi Ziyambi, said it is not the mandate of the ministry to stop the imminent deportations of over two million Zimbabweans from South Africa.
Zimbabweans living and working in South Africa received their four year work permits under the Special Dispensation for Zimbabweans Project (SDZP) in 2009, now set to expire in September this year.
Speaking on the sidelines of the installation of Custon Makumbe as the bishop of the Christian Faith Apostolic Church in Zvimba on Saturday, Ziyambi, who is also the House of Assembly member for Zvimba West, said anything to do with deportations of Zimbabwean citizens from South Africa was under the armpits of the ministry of Foreign Affairs.
"Normally, the issue of deportations is not within the mandate of the Home Affairs ministry…we have no power to halt them," said Ziyambi.
"The norm would be that the Foreign Affairs ministry will liaise with their South African counterparts at diplomatic level, and once that is done, we as a ministry will involve ourselves. As things stand, we cannot directly go into negotiations on the matter of Zimbabweans who are set to be deported from South Africa. Once these negotiations between the local Foreign Affairs and South African ministries are complete, then we will engage our South African counterparts (Home Affairs) to see how we can resolve the issue of work permit renewals."
South Africa's Home Affairs deputy minister Fatima Chohat was recently quoted in the press saying that his country had resolved last month that Zimbabweans would soon be instructed to go back home and reapply from there for the renewal of their work permits.
Speaking at Makumbe's installation ceremony, Ziyambi hailed churches for taking the responsibility of nurturing the youths into becoming responsible citizens.
"Government commends the role of churches in nurturing youths into becoming hardworking and responsible members of society. May I pledge government's full commitment in working with churches. We want young people to marry each other the way of Christianity, then my ministry would fulfill your wish that you have marriage officers within your church," said Ziyambi.
Speaking at the same occasion, Bishop Johannes Ndanga, president of Apostolic Churches Council of Zimbabwe, said MDC-T president Morgan Tsvangirai should retire from politics.
"Some of us are clamouring for change, change for what? To achieve what? Did these people ever come to the Zvimba community and say thank you for bringing the nation a son called Robert Mugabe?" said Ndanga.
"We prophesied that his (Tsvangirai) members, after elections, would bay for his blood, calling for his ouster, and this came to pass. We are now calling him to step down, as he will never participate in the 2018 elections for he is now history."
Zimbabweans living and working in South Africa received their four year work permits under the Special Dispensation for Zimbabweans Project (SDZP) in 2009, now set to expire in September this year.
Speaking on the sidelines of the installation of Custon Makumbe as the bishop of the Christian Faith Apostolic Church in Zvimba on Saturday, Ziyambi, who is also the House of Assembly member for Zvimba West, said anything to do with deportations of Zimbabwean citizens from South Africa was under the armpits of the ministry of Foreign Affairs.
"Normally, the issue of deportations is not within the mandate of the Home Affairs ministry…we have no power to halt them," said Ziyambi.
"The norm would be that the Foreign Affairs ministry will liaise with their South African counterparts at diplomatic level, and once that is done, we as a ministry will involve ourselves. As things stand, we cannot directly go into negotiations on the matter of Zimbabweans who are set to be deported from South Africa. Once these negotiations between the local Foreign Affairs and South African ministries are complete, then we will engage our South African counterparts (Home Affairs) to see how we can resolve the issue of work permit renewals."
South Africa's Home Affairs deputy minister Fatima Chohat was recently quoted in the press saying that his country had resolved last month that Zimbabweans would soon be instructed to go back home and reapply from there for the renewal of their work permits.
Speaking at Makumbe's installation ceremony, Ziyambi hailed churches for taking the responsibility of nurturing the youths into becoming responsible citizens.
"Government commends the role of churches in nurturing youths into becoming hardworking and responsible members of society. May I pledge government's full commitment in working with churches. We want young people to marry each other the way of Christianity, then my ministry would fulfill your wish that you have marriage officers within your church," said Ziyambi.
Speaking at the same occasion, Bishop Johannes Ndanga, president of Apostolic Churches Council of Zimbabwe, said MDC-T president Morgan Tsvangirai should retire from politics.
"Some of us are clamouring for change, change for what? To achieve what? Did these people ever come to the Zvimba community and say thank you for bringing the nation a son called Robert Mugabe?" said Ndanga.
"We prophesied that his (Tsvangirai) members, after elections, would bay for his blood, calling for his ouster, and this came to pass. We are now calling him to step down, as he will never participate in the 2018 elections for he is now history."
Source - Zim Mail
