SOUTH Africa minister of Home Affairs Leon Schreiber has extended the validity of the Zimbabwean Exemption Permits (ZEP) to next year.
In the government gazette yesterday, Schreiber announced that he had extended the controversial ZEP to November 28, 2025.
The previous deadline for Zimbabwean nationals to apply for a new one-year permit was yesterday. In the gazette, Schreiber said: “(I have done this) in order for me to fulfil 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.”
Before the extension, Zimbabwean nationals who had not applied for a waiver to progress from a ZEP to a general work visa in South Africa had Friday to apply for a new one-year exemption permit, which would have been valid until November 29, 2025.
In the gazette, Schreiber said the Immigration Advisory Board (IAB) would be tasked with considering, advising on, and enabling the steps required for compliance with the order of the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria. Last year, in June, the court found that the termination of the ZEP was unlawful. Schreiber added that he would give the IAB time to do its work and ensure a fair process.
The minister said: “I direct that existing ZEPs shall be deemed to remain valid for the next 12 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.”
He further directed: “The holder of an exemption certificate may be allowed to enter into or depart from the Republic of South Africa in terms of Section 9 of the Immigration Act, read together with Immigration Regulations, 2014, provided that he or she complies with all other requirements for entry into and departure from the republic, save for the reason of not having a valid visa endorsed in his or her passport; and “No ZEP holder should be required to produce a valid exemption certificate, visa or an authorisation letter to remain in the republic as contemplated in Section 32(1) of the Immigration Act when making an application for any category of the visa for temporary sojourn in the republic as contemplated in Section 10 (2) of the Immigration Act.”
Before the extension, about 178 000 ZEP holders faced being declared undesirable and deportation if they continued to stay in the country. They also faced the prospect of not being allowed to enter the country for one to five years. — News24