Home affairs minister will
not budge on Zim exemption permits
City
Press -
Motsoaledi told City Press that
South African government officials were facing pressure mainly from Zimbabwean
politicians and diplomats in a last-ditch attempt to persuade Ramaphosa to
change his mind.
Home
Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has vowed to push ahead with the termination
of the Zimbabwe exemption permits issued to asylum seekers, when they expire at
the end of this month, despite “tremendous” pressure from the Zimbabwean
government and lobby groups not to.
The
exemption permits were granted to more than 250 000 Zimbabweans who were among
the millions who poured out of Zimbabwe at the height of its political and
economic crisis in 2008 and 2009, overwhelming the country’s refugee system.
The
temporary measure was meant to regularise their presence in the country and
allow them to access services such as banking.
South
Africa’s Cabinet decided last month that it would not extend the permits when
they expire on December 31.
Exemption
permit holders will have to apply for mainstream visas under normal immigration
laws before December 31 next year, or leave the country.
Motsoaledi
says South Africa is facing huge pressure from the Zimbabwean government –
which seemingly does not want its own citizens back – to withdraw the Cabinet
directive.
And it is
not alone in protesting against the termination.
Human
rights groups have slammed the decision, with the Centre for Applied Legal
Studies writing to Motsoaledi, asking him to rescind it on “purely humanitarian
grounds”.
It
said: Zimbabwe remains a country in turmoil and continues to experience
serious economic and political challenges and violence.
Exemption
permit holders argue that they qualify for permanent residence on the basis
that they have been in South Africa for more than a decade.
Advocate
Simba Chitando, representing exemption permit holders, said he had instructions
to continue with court action to have President Cyril Ramaphosa’s directive
overturned.
“Our
attention’s now focused on asserting exemption permit holders’ legal right to
permanent residency in the Republic,” he said.
SA WON’T
BE ABUSED
It is
believed that the Zimbabwean government is concerned that it would not be able
to cope with a large influx of returning citizens.
City
Press also understands that President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government fears
that some of the returnees are former political activists who would strengthen
resistance to the regime.
Motsoaledi
told City Press that South African government officials were facing pressure
mainly from Zimbabwean politicians and diplomats in a last-ditch attempt to
persuade Ramaphosa to change his mind.
He said
the pressure seemed to be an attempt to get the South African government to
abuse its own immigration laws.
“There’s
an abuse of our systems and, if we don’t put our foot down, we’ll keep being
abused forever. We’re not going to be forced to break our own laws in order to
make someone else’s work easy.
Motsoaledi
said: We’re dealing with self-interest groups that don’t care about the
wellbeing of Zimbabweans who, as exemption permit holders, can’t apply for any
other visa, given the restrictions that were put in place.
SA’S
IMMIGRATION SERVICE
He
expressed anger about the fact that “people keep blaming the immigration
services of South Africa, as if when one country creates a crisis, the country
closest to it must respond by building the requisite capacity to deal with that
crisis.
That’s
the logic here.”
He added:
“There’s also this [belief] that South Africa has abundant [resources] for
everybody. That’s nonsense. No country has the capacity to accommodate everyone
who has problems in the country they come from. In other words, when more and
more [people] come, we must be able to hire more and our resources must expand.
That’s not on.”
Motsoaledi’s
hard-line stance comes at a time when illegal immigration has become a powerful
political football in South Africa, with some parties using it as a major
mobilising issue during the recent local government election.
THE
2008/09 INFLUX
Motsoaledi
explained that the exemption permits were issued to people who were fleeing
Zimbabwe between 2008 and 2009, because asylum centres were not designed to
process the tens of thousands of Zimbabwean citizens who ended up overwhelming
the system.
Some of
those who applied were economic refugees who had no legitimate claim to
political asylum status.
He said: The
refugee regime was only designed for a small number of people.
Motsoaledi
pointed out that in 1998, the number of people who sought asylum in South
Africa was 16 000, rising gradually to 45 000 in 2006.
“All of a
sudden, in 2008, we had an influx of 200 000 and one refugee centre was
[unable] to process those people. In 2009, there were a further 207 000, which
meant that we had more than 400 000 people flooding in from Zimbabwe in just
one year,” said Motsoaledi.
City
Press was reliably informed by another senior official that the Zimbabwean
government intended using Covid-19 measures, including stringent monitoring of
curfew hours, as a way to discourage “those whom they deem ‘undesirable’” from
returning to that country.
Some of
these “undesirables” included former state intelligence and security operatives
who fled the country after falling out of favour with the heavy-handed Zanu-PF
government.
The
official said: The Zimbabwean government hunted down its own operatives
and now they want South Africa to keep them because they’re afraid.
He added
that many intelligence operatives had found homes in different organisations,
including some NGOs that were leading protest action on behalf of exemption
permit holders.
Motsoaledi
said “special-interest groups” claiming to represent the interests of
Zimbabweans affected by the termination of the exemption permits had turned out
to be immigration lawyers whose businesses survived on expediting migration.
“If
there’s no immigration in whatever form – legal or illegal – they can’t make a
living, so they resort to pressurising the state.
Others
make money as NGOs by claiming that they’re representing human rights and they
get donor funding,” he explained.
He said
many of those opposing the final termination of the permits did not understand
that something that had been an extraordinary dispensation could not last
forever, and that people who qualified and wished to apply for different kinds
of visas were free to do so during the 12-month grace period that had been granted
for that purpose.
“So how
long must this special permit remain special? There were disadvantages for
people who were on the exemption permit,” said the minister.
DISINFORMATION
CAMPAIGN
Motsoaledi
said there were also disinformation campaigns encouraging Zimbabweans whose
children who were born in South Africa to demand citizenship for their
offspring.
“Parents
are told that if they don’t do this, their children won’t be accepted in our
schools. That’s just nonsense. All they need to do is go to the department of
education and enquire.
“There’s
nothing in law stating that when you’ve been in a country for a certain period,
then that country is obligated to naturalise you. But here they want to make it
an automatic right – and that’s what I’m resisting. We’re being pressurised
into doing what other countries would never do.”
He said
this would mean that the children of Zimbabweans who made use of Limpopo’s
health services in huge numbers would be entitled to South African citizenship.
He
asked:
If you go to Musina Hospital [in
Limpopo], 70% of the women giving birth there who came for health services are
from Zimbabwe. If those children are born there, does this mean we must give
them citizenship?
www.samigration.com
