adminMashudu Netsianda Senior Reporter
SOUTH Africa has processed more than 116,000 applications from Zimbabweans seeking documents to continue working and living in that country under the Zimbabwe Special Permits (ZSP) facility.
ZSP is a programme that replaced the Dispensation for Zimbabweans Project (DZP), which started in May 2009 and expires on December 31.
During the DZP, 295,000 Zimbabweans applied for permits and about 245,000 were successful, with the balance not getting them due to lack of passports or non-fulfilment of other requirements.
According to the ZSP official website, VFS Global had by Saturday issued 116,555 Zimbabweans with permits.
VFS Global was contracted by the South African government to receive and manage visa and permit applications in that country.
The documentation exercise ends on February 28, 2015.
In August, South Africa introduced the ZSP allowing Zimbabwean holders of the special permit to work, to conduct business or study in South Africa for three years, until December 31, 2017.
The introduction of that new facility ended months of speculation and anxiety among many Zimbabweans amid reports that that country was introducing tougher measures for immigrants.
South Africa Home Affairs director-general Mkuseli Apleni had earlier told Chronicle that holders of expired DZP permits will not be deported until the completion of the ZSP in February next year.
However, those who failed to acquire the permits in 2010 under DZP are being deported.
Only those who benefited under the DZP programme are eligible to apply for work and study permits under the new facility, ZSP.
“The ZSP will be valid for three years and once that time is up, all Zimbabweans with those permits will be required to apply for standard study, work or business visas in order to remain in South Africa. They’ll have to return to Zimbabwe to apply,” said Apleni.
South Africa started accepting permit applications for the DZP permit holders on October 1 as part of the successor programme, ZSP, that was effected in August.
Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi had to re-engage his South African counterpart, Malusi Gigaba, over the issue which culminated in the extension of the special permits to December 2017.
VFS Global has established 11 Visa Facilitation Centres in all nine provinces where applications are accepted across the facilitation centres and assessed by Department of Home Affairs in Pretoria.
Under the new phase, DZP permit-holders are allowed to reapply for the ZSP as long as they have a valid Zimbabwean passport; evidence of employment, business or accredited study and do not have a criminal record.
There are no accurate figures on the number of undocumented or illegal Zimbabwean immigrants living in South Africa.
It is however, estimated that there are about two million Zimbabweans living in South Africa with a majority of them concentrated around Gauteng, the country’s major economic hub.
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