{"id":547132,"date":"2021-12-15T08:45:31","date_gmt":"2021-12-15T06:45:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=547132"},"modified":"2021-12-15T08:45:31","modified_gmt":"2021-12-15T06:45:31","slug":"we-havent-reversed-the-decision-to-end-the-zimbabwean-exemption-permit-minister","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/547132\/we-havent-reversed-the-decision-to-end-the-zimbabwean-exemption-permit-minister\/","title":{"rendered":"We haven’t reversed the decision to end the Zimbabwean Exemption Permit: minister"},"content":{"rendered":"

Home Affairs minister Aaron Motsoaledi says that the government is moving ahead with its plans to end the Zimbabwean Exemption Permit in South Africa.<\/p>\n

This follows earlier reports<\/a> <\/strong>that his department had withdrawn a circular on the decision on Monday (13 November), seemingly backtracking on the planned change that would force about 200,000 Zimbabweans to return home.<\/p>\n

Speaking to radio station 702<\/a><\/strong>, Motsoaledi said that while the circular had been withdrawn, this was due to a clerical issue, not a change of policy. The government would not be renewing the permit, he said.<\/p>\n

The policy was first introduced in 2009 by then-Home Affairs minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, as a temporary solution to a growing refugee crisis related to Zimbabwe. While the dispensation was initially catering to a few thousand people, it quickly ballooned to over 400,000 individuals.<\/p>\n

Motsoaledi said the permit was always supposed to be a temporary solution and was subsequently renewed three times over the last decade. The idea was never for Zimbabweans to stay in the country on the permit permanently.<\/p>\n

The plan is to end the permit on 31 December and allow permit-holders to apply for different visas and permits – or face deportation after 12 months.<\/p>\n

“There should not be any impression that the decision about terminating the Zimbabwean Exemption Permit – and then giving them a 12 month grace period to apply for other statuses – there is no withdrawal of that decision,” Motsoaledi said.<\/p>\n

“What we have withdrawn is a circular that was issued by officials within the Department of Home Affairs – a circular explaining to the banks what they must do. That circular was wrong, it was not supposed to be issued. It was causing more confusion.<\/p>\n

“But the initial decision to end the Zimbabwean Exemption Permit – nothing has changed, and nothing is going to change,” he said.<\/p>\n

The decision to end the permits drew a chorus of complaints from human rights groups that threatened to mount a court challenge.<\/p>\n

Activists have argued that Zimbabweans who have been living in South Africa for more than a decade were going to be sent back to a country with few economic opportunities and high levels of political repression.<\/p>\n

The exemption only applied to Zimbabweans who entered South Africa before the arrangement was enacted in 2009.<\/p>\n

According to government statistics, South Africa has a population of about 60 million, including about 3 million migrants. Many are Zimbabweans driven south by two decades of politically linked violence and economic collapse. The majority are undocumented and do not hold the permit.<\/p>\n

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Read:\u00a0Home Affairs extends office and border hours over December<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Home Affairs minister Aaron Motsoaledi says that the government is moving ahead with its plans to end the Zimbabwean Exemption Permit in South Africa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":547134,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-547132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=547132"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547132\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":547166,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547132\/revisions\/547166"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/547134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=547132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=547132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=547132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}