The termination of the Zimbabwe Exemption Permit would damage South Africa’s reputation as a human rights leader in the region.



From April 11 to 14, a full bench of the Pretoria High Court heard an application to set aside the termination of the Zimbabwe Exemption Permit (ZEP), a special facility allowing 178,421 holders temporary legal status to live, work, conduct business and study in South Africa.

In April 2009, South Africa established the Dispensation of Zimbabwean Permit (DZP) to regularise the status of thousands of Zimbabwean nationals who had fled political and economic instability in their country, mostly between 2007 and 2009.

The special exemption was reissued as the Zimbabwean Special Dispensation Permit (ZSP) in 2014 and the ZEP in 2017, before South Africa’s cabinet decided to cancel it altogether in November 2021.

To ease their plight, ZEP holders were given a 12-month grace period – an extension ending on December 31, 2022 – to either apply for a mainstream visa or leave the country.

Nevertheless, in September 2022, Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi extended the validity of the ZEP by a further six months, to June 30, 2023, delaying an arduous and unclear finale for the forsaken Zimbabweans.

If the case lodged at the Pretoria High Court does not produce a favourable outcome for the ZEP holders, many of these migrants and their families (each ZEP holder is believed to have approximately three to four dependents) will have to leave South Africa or face deportation.

According to the Zimbabwe Community in South Africa and Zimbabwe Migrants Support Network, most ZEP holders are low-wage workers who do not qualify for mainstream work permits and their chances of being granted a regulatory waiver – an exemption that would override the normal visa requirements – appear remote.

So they have not applied for conventional visas, but have placed their hopes of remaining in South Africa as documented people on a successful legal challenge.

While the home affairs ministry has not yet published the number of ZEP holders who have applied for mainstream visas to date, we know that only 10 percent had done so by December 2022.

Strangely enough, the present dilemma seemed to be an improbable outcome for the hapless Zimbabweans several years ago.