Zim project hits setback
CABINET has denied claims that Home Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma was to travel to Zimbabwe in an effort to resolve the crisis around the registration of Zimbabwean migrants.
The cabinet announced last year that it was ending the free three-month work and study visa given to all Zimbabweans since President Jacob Zuma took office.
Zimbabweans were then expected to apply for documentation at their embassy so that the South African government could have a record of how many of them were in the country legally.
Refugee rights group People Against Suffering, Suppression, Oppression and Poverty (Passop) said yesterday that Dlamini-Zuma would fly to Zimbabwe in the next two weeks "in an attempt to get the political 'buy-in' needed to get out of the current deadlock".
This comes after the Zimbabwean temporary consulate in Cape Town shut its doors last week, leaving thousands of Zimbabweans who had applied for passports in the lurch.
The government has come under fire from human rights lawyers for its handling of the Zimbabweans. Lawyers for Human Rights said the deadline was too short and the project would only lead to mass deportations.
But yesterday Collins Chabane, Minister of Performance Monitoring and Evaluation, played down the possible visit by Dlamini-Zuma.
"This was never discussed, neither did she report to the cabinet that she is going there. That is probably the normal routine visit," Chabane said.
More than 100000 undocumented Zimbabweans living in South Africa then applied for passports. With the receipts of application, they were able to apply at Home Affairs for work, business and study permits.
But now the project has stalled because the Zimbabwean government has failed to send the passports back to those who applied.
Passop said Zimbabweans felt that they had been "robbed", because they paid R750 each as a passport application fee.
ncagumbuduma
Give them I'd's akere youleft our borders open justgive them free I'd's.Report Abuse
ncagumbuduma
Give them I'd's akere you left our borders open justgive them free I'd's.Report Abuse
kwantu
SA government has tried all it can but the Zim government is letting its people down. Firstly the SA govt offered them the passport printing machine and they developed cold shoulders. Zimbabweans went on to burn down their own passport printing machine and continued to turn down the SA offer. Now they close down the Cape Consulate. Its like SA is butt kissing Zim or something.Its clear Zim govt does not want SA to helps its citizens.
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