Good news for Zimbabwean exemption permit holders in South Africa
The Department of Home Affairs has gazetted an official extension of existing Zimbabwean Exemption Permits (ZEPs) to November 2025.
In the gazette, DHA minister Leon Schreiber said the extension had been granted to give him the time needed to address the Gauteng High Court’s requirements.
As such, existing ZEPs will remain valid for the next twelve months.
“No holder of a ZEP may be arrested, ordered to depart or be detained for purposes of deportation or deported in terms of section 34 of the Immigration Act for any reason related to him or her not having any valid exemption certificate,” the department said.
Further to this, a holder of an exemption certificate may be allowed to enter into or depart from the Republic of South Africa provided that they comply with all other requirements for entry into and departure.
The gazette comes at the last minute, as countless holders of ZEPs faced uncertainty this week about whether they could stay in the country.
Marisa Jacobs, Managing Director at Xpatweb, said that there are an estimated 178,000 ZEP-holders in South Africa who had found themselves “between the devil and the deep blue sea” after former minister of Home Affairs, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, decided in 2022 to terminate the ZEP.
Several court cases followed, and in June 2023, the High Court in Pretoria confirmed that the termination of the ZEP was indeed unlawful, and a subsequent appeal of the decision was refused by the Supreme Court of Appeal and the Constitutional Court.
Without the latest extension, legal experts warned that ZEP-holders may have been at risk of being declared undesirable if they stayed in South Africa after the 29 November 2024 deadline passed.
ZEP-holders are entitled to work, seek employment and conduct business in South Africa during the validity of the exemption permit. A holder of the exemption permit is allowed freedom of movement in and out of South Africa.
On 29 August this year, new DHA minister Schreiber instituted a new rule to deliver the outcomes of visa waiver applications digitally via email to applicants. In the first phase of the rollout, the outcome of waiver applications for ZEPs will be sent digitally.
“Over time, this digital-first approach will be extended to other applicants in the visa and permit regime. Starting today with ZEP holders and later, all applicants will conveniently receive digital waiver letters, in PDF format, through email,” the DHA said.
By the end of August, the DHA had processed more than 60,000 outstanding ZEP waiver applications, many of which dated back to 2022.
Jacobs noted that ZEP-holders who applied for a waiver to progress to a General Work visa and are awaiting the application’s processing can proceed with their submission for a General Work visa as soon as the waiver has been processed. The new Points-based system does not apply in these instances.
The gazette can be read below:
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