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GroundUp reports that when government announced the scrapping of the Zimbabwe Exemption Permit (ZEP), permit holders were told to apply for waivers of the usual immigration requirements and to seek alternative visas if they wished to remain in SA legally.
A waiver would allow ZEP holders to continue in their jobs without having to go through an immigration process from scratch with the Department of Employment and Labour, for instance to prove that the job was advertised and no South African applied for or was qualified for the position. Successful waiver applicants could then apply for a general work visa. In December 2023, Department of Home Affairs (DHA) Minister Aaron Motsoaledi advised that just over 78,000 Zimbabweans had applied for waivers and about 10,000 for alternative visas. But a number of waiver applicants say they have found themselves facing a new dilemma. Their waiver applications have been successful, but the letters have errors – names, job descriptions and the companies employing them are incorrect. There are so many cases of this posted on social media that some Zimbabweans believe it is being done on purpose by the DHA. It means they are legally in the country but with incorrect papers. The waiver letters are according to a format stating the regulations as well as the applicant’s ZEP number, name, employer and position of employment. They are signed by Motsoaledi. James Chapman of the Scalabrini Center explained that if a waiver had errors, it would make it “very difficult to get a visa because VFS verifies the information on the waiver certificate and if it’s not correctly reflecting, then there are high chances of the application getting rejected”. He said visa applications were routinely dismissed even if there was a minor error. The visa fee of R1,550 is not refunded.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Joseph Chirume at GroundUp
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