WASHINGTON - Sipho Ngulube, a 53-year-old holder of a Zimbabwe Exemption Permit (ZEP) who has lived in South Africa for more than 20 years, faces the possibility of deportation when his special document, issued in 2009 by the government, expires on June 30 this year.
Ngulube is now restless, thinking that he will abandon his two children and trek back to his motherland in Ntabazinduna, Matabeleland North, about 43 kilometers north-east of Zimbabwe’s second largest city, Bulawayo.
Despite his fears, he won’t register for voluntary repatriation at the Zimbabwe Embassy in Johannesburg. Ngulube has since applied for permission to remain in the country despite his lack of critical skills needed by the South African government for him to be granted another work permit.
“Some of us applied for waivers as we don’t have critical skills that the South African governments wants. There is no word from the government at the moment. We applied last year and it seems the government may not be interested in giving some of us new permits.”
He is among 178,412 holders of Zimbabwe Exemption Permits facing deportation if they don’t regularize their status by the end of June, a deadline set by the South African government for them to transfer into new visas.
ZIMBABWE GOVERNMENT
In his weekly column in the state-controlled Sunday Mail newspaper, President Emmerson Mnangagwa said citizens coming back home won’t struggle to be integrated into the local society. He was quoted as saying, “With a strong educational foundation and largely highly skilled in different trades and disciplines, our nationals have been active across a wide spectrum of the South African economy. They will not be hard-pressed for options.”
The president also said the government would assist the returnees “as they prepare to resume a productive life as full citizens back in the land of their birth.”
He indicated that his government would soon send a team to South Africa tasked with conducting a mapping exercise to account for all citizens, including children at various schools and higher learning institutions.
David Hamadziripi, Zimbabwe’s ambassador to South Africa, says they are ready to facilitate the smooth return of citizens, who will fail to get work permits.
“In order to adequately prepare to do so the embassy and the consulates of Zimbabwe will be conducting a mapping exercise to identify and register ZEP holders who wish to return home. The mapping exercise will be conducted in the course of February and March 2023 across all the provinces of South Africa. This exercise is composed of two parts – the first being an online registration while the second part involves physical visits by multi-sectoral teams to designated areas across South Africa. The teams will comprise officials from the embassy, the consulates and several government ministries in Zimbabwe.”
According to some Zimbabwean authorities in South Africa an unspecified number of ZEP holders have started applying for assistance to return home. Embassy officials declined to give figures, saying it’s too early to come up with specific numbers of registrants.
The government has promised to initiate self-help programs for returnees in a nation ravaged by high inflation, lack of jobs and political tensions between the ruling Zanu PF party and opposition groups as the southern African nation inches closer to a crucial election to be held sometime this year.
Velempini Ndlovu, an attorney representing some of the applicants, who can afford to pay about R1,500 per hour in lawyers’ fees, says some ZEP holders are scared of going back home. “People will find themselves being deported and the conditions that they left in Zimbabwe are still prevailing. We know that in Zimbabwe there is going to be an election very soon and already we have seen instances of violence whereby people who support parties which are not the ruling party Zanu PF are being subjected to some violence.”
ZANU PF ASSISTANCE
However, Kennedy Mandaza, the ruling Zanu PF spokesperson based in South Africa, says there is no reason to fear anything in Zimbabwe as President Mnangagwa is ready to welcome back home holders of Zimbabwe Exemption Permits, who may find themselves stranded in that country by the end of June.
Mandaza says, “The government of Zimbabwe has made it very clear that it has come up with a ministerial committee that is working on the logistics for all those that will be going back to
Zimbabwe. I’m also aware that there is also Diasporans for ED (Economic Development) in South Africa which is currently working on ensuring that there is a smooth return for Zimbabweans who intend going back. So, basically as Zanu PF we are worried that quite a large number of our people may not get permits. However, there is still room for them to go back to Zimbabwe particularly to use that which they have been acquiring as well as the facilities that are being made to the people.”
Mandaza believes that the Zimbabwean government won’t victimize returnees, including those fearing political persecution.
“The president Cde Emmerson Mnangagwa upon assuming duty in 2017 made it clear to all Zimbabweans wherever there are in the world that ‘let bygones be bygones’ and what he meant was very clear. There are people who had transgressions before his ascendance to power … Those that claimed that they had been victimized by other people, they are most welcome in Zimbabwe. We have seen quite a number of people that have done wrong and they have never been asked or questioned about what they had done in the past. And so when the president said ‘let bygones be bygone’ he meant what it means and has been walking the talk and we expect that anyone who has any claim of whatever nature can safely get into Zimbabwe and won’t be victimized.”
ECONOMIC TRAGEDY
But Paul Themba Nyathi, former Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army freedom fighter and opposition Movement for Democratic Change founding member, Zimbabweans who will return home will face serious challenges.
“Those 180,000 holders of Zimbabwe Exemption Permits reflect the tragedy in the region. It’s an economy to begin with that is not capable of responding to the needs of the population, particularly the Zimbabwean economy that has in many respects disintegrated. And apart from the political tensions that were responsible for those people leaving the country in the first place, they come back to a Zimbabwe that is worse off in terms of the absence of space, self expressing to begin with, absence of space for individuals to exercise their constitutional rights.”
Nyathi adds that the social, political and economic situation has deteriorated in Zimbabwe following the toppling of the late former President Robert Mugabe in a defacto military coup in 2017.
“I feel for the 180,000 should they be deported. There is nothing to come back to. All you have to do is to look at the level of unemployment in the country and the informal economy that exists. They wouldn’t even be much space for people to engage in informal activities because basically there isn’t space for that.”
Mandaza scoffs at such suggestions, saying returnees are expected to engage in many projects. “What I’m quite aware of is that the government is trying to come up with programs that would make sure that the people that are coming from South Africa after the expiry of their permits they will be accommodated into the various sectors that they have been involved in and it is encouraging people to get into groups, pool their resources so that when they return they can also be assimilated into the current economic system in Zimbabwe. Over and above that, the government is saying those who would like to have land in the various areas, could it be Bulawayo, Matabeleland North, Manicaland and so on, they should make their intentions known.”
6,000 ZEP APPLICANTS
The South African government says just over 6,000 ZEP permit holders - domestic workers, farm employees, waiters and others –filed applications by December last year to regularize their stay in the country. The ruling African National Congress, on the other hand, recently drafted an immigration document in which it is appealing to the relevant authorities to tighten the country’s immigration laws, including spousal regulations.
Part of the policy reads in part, “The so-called spousal visa and relative’s visa are the most abused by foreign nationals who find them as an easy route to sojourn in South Africa, and acquire permanent residence and citizenship. Spousal visa, relative visa, corporate visa and related visas should be done away with. If a foreign national falls in love with a South African citizen, their rights and consequences thereof are governed by other laws such as the marriages act and the children’s acts. These issues should not be linked to immigration.”
The ANC has also recommended the ending of some refugee programs similar to Botswana’s repatriation schemes, which included Namibians and Zimbabweans, who had lived for many years at Dukwi Refugee Camp.
LACK OF DEMOCRACY
Nyathi says lack of democracy in Zimbabwe and the Southern African Development Community region has resulted in the migration of millions of people, who are forced to leave their countries to seek refuge in the West and other places.
He says, “Democracy is about allowing people to express their views, it’s allowing people to determine who leads them, it’s about people deciding who to associate with. Its about all the things that define freedoms. We define that as democracy. And then of course an economy in an environment where democracy has a deficit, the economy turns to suffer in response to lack of democratic space and so forth. Repression and denial of rights and self expression encourage corruption. Corruption takes resources away from investment, which if done properly would increase jobs, would allow ordinary Zimbabweans to manage their own businesses. When they are employed, they are not recipients of social welfare.”
For Ngulube, life will be hard when ZEP holders fail to regularize their status in South Africa. “We are just waiting for the government outcome. If need be, we will go back home but we don’t know what will happen to us. We will find a way of making a living. But as of now, we have no concrete plans on what we will do.”
Ngqabutho Mabhena, chairperson of the Zimbabwe Community in South Africa, says the ANC is fed up with foreigners as it fears a public backlash ahead of the 2024 general elections.
“They are simply fed up with Zimbabweans and other nationals. They want us to leave the country. The ANC and President Cyril Ramaphosa have been very clear on this as Ramaphosa is of the view that South Africa is ready to welcome new skilled manpower from various nations.”
Zimbabweans are now pinning their hopes on a court case filed by the Helen Suzman Foundation, an independent, non-partisan think-tank in South Africa. It is challenging moves by South Africa to terminate the ZEP program, saying it may lead to the deportation of thousands of Zimbabweans, who have lived in the country legally for many years.
Thuso Khumalo also contributed to this article