South Africa has made a move and is set to start deporting more than 40,000 Zimbabweans who failed to apply for their visa extensions under the special dispensation mitigated by that government under request from Harare.
The deadline for any and all Zimbabweans in South Africa wanting to apply for a permit to stay in the country legally is the 31st, the home affairs department revealed as reported on ZimEye on the 31st December.
A Home Affairs officer has said following the announcement illegal Zimbabweans are to be forcibly removed from that country.
“The closure of the Zimbabwean special permit application process [is] by end of business today, 31 December,” the department said in a statement as earlier reported.
As of Tuesday, 207 802 applications had been received, while 198 840 appointments had been booked through VFS, a private company to which home affairs had outsourced certain visa and permit processes.
A total of 245 000 Zimbabweans living in South Africa were eligible to apply for the new permit.
The department said that besides the close of applications for Zimbabwean special permits, permits issued under an older system, the Dispensation for Zimbabwean Project (ZSP) also expired today – no matter their original expiry date.
Last month, the department announced it would allow people with the expired older permits to still use these documents to travel in and out of South Africa during the festive season until December 31.
Zimbabweans in the country illegally were granted an opportunity from 2009 to legalise their stay via the permit, due to the political and socio-economic conditions in that country.
Previously, Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba said all the new permits should be issued by the end of April next year. They would be valid until the end of 2017.
A similar permit process for the Basotho, Mozambicans, and other Southern African Development Community nationals is expected to be implemented in future.
– Sapa
4 Replies to “South Africa Deports 40,000 Zimbabweans”
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Let’s deport the colonizing chinks to mbekiland. We don’t want scum/zpuff
How can you tell if they are still in your country?
Strange that even the ones who don’t apply for the permit in question but other permits have to wait a long time to get the permit could be either a work permit or permanent residence. . I once applied for a work permit and instead of the permit been given 8 was given a resident permit that don’t allow me to work the rectification still not done and been waiting over 14 months also looking at the date of issue. . Issued in may 2013 but was only send the text msg in September of 2013. .to collect even going to find out in the months between was told still been processed in Pretoria.
You lie…indava muchida kukonzera mirizhonga?