People waiting in long lines outside the VFS Global office in Cape Town on Thursday. On Friday morning, Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber extended the validity of the original Zimbabwe Exemption Permit to November 2025. Photo: Matthew Hirsch
•    Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber extended the validity of the original Zimbabwe Exemption Permit (ZEP) to 28 November 2025.
•    The validity of the original ZEP was meant to end on Friday, 29 November 2024.
•    This caused panic among thousands of people trying to remain legally in the country who, frustrated by long queues and challenges with the appointment booking system, have been struggling to meet the deadline.
•    Schreiber stated that during this extension period holders of ZEPs may not be arrested or deported.

Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber has stepped in at the eleventh hour on Friday morning to extend the validity of the Zimbabwe Exemption Permit (ZEP).

This comes as the ZEP was meant to expire on Friday, causing panic among thousands of people trying to remain legally in the country.

In the government gazette on 29 November, Schreiber said that the Zimbabwean Exemption Permit would remain valid until 28 November 2025 “in order for me to fulfill the duty placed on me by the Gauteng High Court to consult the affected ZEP holders and all other stakeholders on the future of the current dispensation”.

He was referring to a court ruling, previously reported by GroundUp.
Schreiber stated that the Immigration Advisory Board would once again be activated to advise the department on ways to comply with the High Court order on the future of the ZEP.

He further stated that “no holder of a ZEP may be arrested, ordered to depart or be detained for 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”.
Holders of an exemption certificate will be allowed to travel in and out of the country, “provided that he or she complies with all other requirements for entry into and departure, save for the reason of not having a valid visa endorsed in his or her passport”.

Long queues
As news of the extension broke on Friday, many ZEP holders were still stuck in long queues outside VFS Global offices in Cape Town and Gqeberha in a desperate bid to apply for waivers to remain in South Africa when their ZEPs expire. VFS is the service provider for the Department of Home Affairs.

Outside the office in Cape Town on Thursday, just after 6am the queue was already snaking around the building.
Many people in line told GroundUp they had spent days at VFS offices to collect or query their applications to remain in South Africa. People complained about the functionality of the VFS online booking system.

A sign outside the VFS office said it would be open on Saturday for people to collect their waivers.
At the Gqeberha VFS Global office in Walmer on Friday morning lines remained long with about 80 people still queueing at 10am.
A mother of three, who is a ZEP holder, said she had travelled from Cradock and was told to return on Friday morning.
“I live far away and have no friends here … I am in limbo because I have to ensure I stay legally in this country given the constant arrests by immigration officials,” she said.

A mother and a son from Cleary Park, turned away on Thursday, said they had been trying to book an appointment for the past month without success.

“We did our best to make online appointments. At first, I thought maybe my son did not know the system. Then we went to seek assistance from an internet cafe only to see that it was the same,” she said.

Chairperson of the Zimbabwe Migrants Support Network Chris Mapingure said, “We’re not happy with the way Home Affairs has been treating people wanting to extend their permits through VFS. During the month, desperate people approached us for assistance because they had difficulty booking appointments.”
He said they had pleaded with the Home Affairs to extend the grace period to allow for everyone to be assisted.

At around 12.55 on Tuesday afternoon, the lights flickered and then failed across Zimbabwe and Zambia. This synchronised blackout, the second in recent weeks, was triggered by cascading failures in the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP) — a cooperative framework meant to bolster regional energy resilience.
Towards the end of November, another such blackout occurred which was attributed to “an unexpected development on the Zambia-Zimbabwe interconnector”.

The National Transmission Company of South Africa (NTCSA) — a wholly owned subsidiary of Eskom — told Daily Maverick that Tuesday’s incident was not a “power surge”, but rather an “incident, event or fault”.
“The tripping of lines occurs automatically to protect the power system and power equipment, and it is misleading to suggest that Eskom took a decision to disconnect the SAPP region.”

While this measure prevented potential damage within South Africa, it intensified cascading failures that left Zimbabwe and Zambia powerless. The incidents occurred when the lines between Mozambique, South Africa, Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe tripped.
The Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC) said an “imbalance in power on the international connections” caused the blackout.

In a statement, the ZETDC said, “[Zimbabwe Electricity Supply] Holdings would like to advise its valued customers that the national grid experienced a system disturbance which resulted in a national blackout on Tuesday, December 17, 2024, at 1255 hours. This incident was caused by an imbalance in power on the international connections which affected the national grid of Zimbabwe and some parts of the region.

“Restoration to most parts of the country has been completed, except for areas under load shedding.”
The incident is being investigated by the SAPP Coordination Centre based in Harare.
The Lusaka Times reported that on Monday, a day before the blackout, Zimbabwe’s power generation plummeted to its lowest level in more than 12 months, with daily electricity production hitting 736MW. For context, just one of Koeberg Nuclear Power Station’s two units can produce 970MW.

Eskom is Africa’s largest electricity producer, supplying nearly 30% of the continent’s power. Accordingly, it plays a critical role in the SAPP.
Complementing this is the NTCSA, which operates under a National Energy Regulator of South Africa-issued licence which allows the NTCSA to manage imports, exports and the trade of electricity within the SAPP, ensuring the interconnected grid functions smoothly and efficiently.

South Africa on Wenesday fielded four Cabinet ministers for a bilateral meeting with Mozambique as companies and other countries prepare for fresh protests in that country next week.

The countries agreed, according to a carefully worded joint statement, to "endeavour to protect and secure the infrastructure for trade facilitation and continued collaboration to ensure minimum disruption".
But their emphasis appeared to be somewhat different, judging by a brief question-and-answer session.
There will be "no disruptions in coming days", said Mozambique's interior minister, Pascoal Ronda, vowing that the Maputo Corridor would remain open.

But South Africa's international relations minister, Ronald Lamola, acknowledged that SA's national security is at risk, and said the government was looking into ways to mitigate risks, including the disruption of the flow of petroleum products via that corridor and gas via the Mozambique-Secunda pipeline.

Lamola said security forces had agreed to joint planning and to "respond to each other's challenges" throughout the festive season, but would not provide details citing security concerns.

Opposition leader Venancio Mondlane has promised fresh protests if an official announcement on the 9 October election expected next week does not see him declared the winner.
Ronda said his government is continuing efforts to speak to Mondlane directly and find solutions to "problems" around the election.
Lamola said South Africa would await the outcome of Mozambique's formal processes, and in the meantime called for calm to allow those to proceed.

The joint statement by South Africa and Mozambique warn of "great danger of food and energy insecurity" should protests continue, and noted the significant economic impact they have already had on both countries.

Ministers
Deputy Ministers
Senior Government Officials
Members of the Media
Ladies and Gentlemen
Good morning,

Thank you for joining us this morning as we provide an update regarding our work in implementing the action plan to address the challenges arising from food-borne illnesses.
In the address to the nation on the 15th of November 2024, following the deaths of children due to food-borne illnesses, amongst measures adopted by the government, President Ramaphosa outlined a key compliance intervention on the regulation of spaza shops. The President directed that all spaza shops and other food handling facilities must be registered within the municipalities in which they operate within 21 days from the date of his address and that any shop that is not registered within 21 days and does not meet all health standards and requirements is closed.
The 21-day period directed by the President for registering all spaza shops and other food handling outlets ended yesterday (17 December 2024). The government still needs to do more work to ensure that the sector is properly regulated and adheres to health regulations.
The government understands the concerns raised by some stakeholders regarding the registration deadline for spaza shops. However, it must be noted that the initial deadline was set to address the urgent need to ensure compliance with health and safety standards following the tragic incidents of food-borne illnesses.  Registration ensures that all spaza shops meet minimum standards, regardless of their past operations.

In considering whether or not to extend the registration deadline, the government considers its commitment to supporting small businesses, prioritising health and safety, ensuring inclusivity and fairness, and maintaining its integrity.

The municipal processes of adopting and adapting the by-laws as gazetted by the Minister of COGTA on the 7th of November 2024 are highly regulated and need a lot of consultation to complete. Nevertheless, a lot of work was done over the 21 days of registration period, as such the following has been achieved: (READ THE TABLE)
In consultation with the President, therefore, the government has resolved to extend the registration deadline for all Spaza Shops and other food-handling outlets to 28 February 2025.

Prior to the revised deadline of 28 February 2025, the government in all its spheres will continue to implement the action plan to address the crisis of foodborne illnesses and the illicit trade of goods across the country.

Those who have registered their businesses and have duly received their acknowledgement of registration still need to undertake a further process to obtain their trading licenses. For this process, Environmental Health Practitioners and other regulatory authorities will still inspect owners of registered food-related trading businesses to ensure that their businesses are eligible to trade.
Notwithstanding the holiday scaling down of operations, municipalities must still reserve capacity to assist those who will be registering. We also urge business owners to continue with their registration process within their respective municipalities and not wait until the next registration deadline.

Business registration
It is essential to explain that the end of this period does not mean that the process is over, a lot still needs to happen for those who have registered their businesses and others who still need to do so.
As the multidisciplinary team dealing with this outbreak, we will continue our efforts to ensure that all food handling facilities, including manufacturers comply with business and health regulatory requirements.

We need to explain that we are dealing with two distinct processes. The 1st process is Business compliance where you need to register the Spaza shops or any food handling business. The second process is compliance with health regulations. This process does not depend on whether you are registered or not. If you don’t comply with the health regulations the business is closed down immediately. Hence 1041 spaza shops have already been closed.
We are aware of some who have encountered obstacles not of their own making, preventing them from complying with the 21-day registration period. We would therefore like to take this opportunity to thank all those who have taken the time to register their businesses. This was an essential step in ensuring that these businesses uphold the dignity and protect the human lives of the public they serve from which they derive their livelihoods. We are, however, also aware that others have just stayed away and ignored the directive to register their businesses. We want to warn that people must register their businesses and subject these to health compliance inspections.

Thus far, the government’s multidisciplinary response and interventions to this outbreak have helped curb the immediate threat and focus on addressing weaknesses in the regulatory environment.

Health interventions
The appointment of 15 health experts to the Ministerial Advisory Committee has now been finalised. This committee will develop medium-to-long-term prevention measures to curb the incidence of foodborne illnesses in the country.
A statement from the Department of Health has been issued with all the names of the members of this panel. The statement can be obtained from the website of the Department of Health at www.health.gov.za

Enforcement and compliance
The multidisciplinary enforcement teams have been on the ground conducting door-to-door compliance checks, intelligence-led operations on warehouses and supermarkets and other food handlers, closures of non-compliant premises, and confiscation of non-compliant or illegal goods.

Inspections of imported food items, medicines, drugs, and pesticides have also been intensified at ports of entry. Heightened surveillance at all 71 ports of entry, especially marine ports in KwaZulu-Natal including Durban, is aimed at preventing the entry of unsafe goods. Recently, 470 Litres of pesticides were seized at a bonded warehouse and denied entry into the country.
A collaborative operational plan involving SARS Customs, the Border Management Authority (BMA), and the Department of Agriculture will be rolled out during the festive season. The plan will target high-risk activities and strengthen enforcement.
Joint law enforcement operations underscore the government’s ongoing commitment to safeguarding public health and ensuring food safety, particularly during the busy festive period.

Public Education and awareness
One of the most important initiatives we have undertaken is the rollout of a public education and awareness campaign aimed at children of school-going age, teachers, and their parents.
It is important that we intensify this campaign, especially during this busy festive season and in preparation for the opening of schools in early January. The messages on food safety and the dangers of pesticides in domestic environments are quite critical in reducing the risk of infections and food contamination.
We call on all our civil society and business partners to amplify these important messages and help educate our community on food safety.

Conclusion
During this period, we have learnt valuable lessons in a short space of time, especially regarding the need for strengthened enforcement of regulation of spaza shops and other small food handling outlets.
We want to emphasise that registration alone does not mean a business is eligible to trade. To obtain a licence or a permit to trade, business owners must comply with all health regulations and municipal by-laws related to conducting a business.
Working together, we can build a safer, healthier, and more equitable food ecosystem for all South Africans.
Thank You

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