South African Govt Extends Zimbabwe Exemption Permits Again

Bernard Chiguvare/GroundUp
8 June 2023
allAfrica.com

Cape Town — South Africa's Minister of Home Affairs extended the validity of Zimbabwean Exemption Permits (ZEP) for 6 more months from June 30, 2023, when the permits were set to expire. The permits are now valid until December 31, 2023.

This is the statement issued on June 7, 2023, by Minister Aaron Motsoaledi:


PRESS STATEMENT ON THE ISSUING OF MINISTER’S IMMIGRATION
DIRECTIVE NO: 2 OF 2023, EXTENDING THE VALIDITY OF THE
EXEMPTION PERMITS ISSUED TO THE ZIMBABWEAN NATIONALS


1. As you are aware, the Minister of Home Affairs (Minister) issued a
directive in September 2022, extending the validity of exemption
permits issued to the Zimbabwean nationals to 30 June 2023. Since
that time, significant developments took place.


2. The Minister has approved thousands of waiver applications of the
affected Zimbabwean nationals. This has resulted in significant
increase in the number of visa and waiver applications. The
Departmental Advisory Committee (DAC) led by Dr Cassius Lubisi is
now dealing with the increased number of visa applications.
The Minister is equally considering and approving waiver applications
on a daily basis.


3. Unlike before since May/beginning of June 2023, VFS Global is now
receiving between 1 000 - 1 500 visa and waiver applications of the
affected Zimbabwean nationals daily. For these reasons, the Director-
General has deployed more officials to assist in the processing of the
applications.


4. The Minister took into consideration the said factors, including (to a
certain extent) submissions received from the affected Zimbabwean
nationals, relevant officials of the Department of Home Affairs (DHA)
and other interested parties and decided to issue another Immigration
Directive, extending the validity of Zimbabwean exemption permits for a
further period of 6 months, ending on 31 December 2023. A copy of the
Directive is annexed hereto marked “A”.


5 The Minister’s Immigration Directive no: 2 of 2023, will be published in
the Extraordinary Government Gazette tomorrow on Thursday, 8 June
2023 .


6. The Minister calls upon all interested parties to take into consideration
the said Directive in their decision-making processes.


7. The Minister will be addressing a letter to the Minister of International
Relations and Cooperation requesting her to issue a note verbale to
bring the Directive to the attention of His Excellency, the Ambassador
of the Republic of Zimbabwe.


Issued by:
DEPARTMENT OF HOME AFFAIRS
DATE: 07 JUNE 2023

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