South Africa: Speaking Notes for Briefing to the Media by the Head of the Zimbabwe Documentation Project, Jacob Mamabalo

South African Government (Pretoria)

30 June 2011

press release

Ladies and gentlemen of the media,  our weekly  briefing today will be looking at the status of the Zimbabwe Documentation Project (ZDP).

Cabinet in September 2010, announced an end to the special dispensation that allowed Zimbabwean nationals to enter and remain in the country without legal and proper documents.  Through this dispensation, such nationals were not subjected to deportation.

However, Zimbabwean nationals without documents were required to present themselves at Home Affairs offices throughout the country to apply for work, business and study permits to have their stay in the country legalised.

At this point I must explain why we decided to end this special dispensation.  Many Zimbabwean nationals had over the past few years, following political turbulence in their country, entered South Africa illegally and without documents in an attempt to escape the political and socio-economic conditions in their country.

This however posed serious security challenges to the country since most of them had not been registered either as refugees, asylum seekers or even as economic migrants.

South Africa, nonetheless is a member of the UN and other multilateral forums and is a signatory to a number of international protocols and conventions governing the management of refugees and asyslum seekers. Accordingly, our treatment of these Zimbabweans had to be in accordance with these international conventions and practice.

However, these international practices and conventions and our own immigration laws required that we register every foreigner residing in our country for purposes of planning and other national requirements.

Accordingly, the government decided to embark on a process of documenting Zimbabweans residing in our country illegally. This was done in full consultation with the Zimbabwean authorities including the Zimbabwean stakeholder forum members consisting of Zimbabwean organisations operating from South Africa.

It is a matter of record, that a number of bilateral consultations were held at Ministerial and stakeholder forum levels, resulting in the overall mobilisation of Zimbabweans residing illegally in South Africa. The mobilisation included the granting of amnesty to those who hand over fraudulently acquired ID’s, passports, birth and other certificates.

On the 31st December 2010, we succesfully completed the process of taking applications. We registered a total of 275 762.  This figure include the total of 6243 amnesty applications.

We are pleased to report that we have adjudicated a total of 263 141. We are still to adjudicate 12 621 applications. We have however only issued 133 331. We are still to issue 142 431 Permits.

Since Zimbabwean nationals had acquired loans, obtained qualifications, etc, in some cases using fraudulent South African documents, the Department has also engaged with various stakeholders including the SABRIC, the insurance industry, the Financial Intelligence Centre and all major banks with a view to assisting those who return fraudulently acquired documents to the department and to enable them to lead normal lives in the country.

You will recall that by the deadline of 31st December 2010, we did not take fingerprint and certain supporting documents. We are currently sending Short Messages using a technological sytem to applicants to submit their fingerprints and other supporting documents.

As part of our effort to mobilise Zimbabean nationals to respond to the SMS’s and submit the outstanding documents and fingerprint, the department will be hosting a meeting with the Zimbabwean stakeholder forum on Monday 4 July to update them on progress thus far and to request their assistance in mobilising their compatriots to respond to the SMS’s.

Similarly, we continue to interact with the Zimbabwean embassy and consulate to ensure the fastracking of the issuance of the necessary travel to those who apllied without the necessary travel documents

As per directives of Minister Dlamini Zuma, the department continues to do everything in its power to ensure it meets its obligation to document Zimbabweans living in South Africa. However, we can only succeed with the full support of all applicants.

With everything remaining the same, we are doing everything in our power to ensure the process is completed within our set deadlines. Should there be any more challenges, Minister Dlamini Zuma will communicate accordingly.

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