Deputy minister visits home affairs office

Deputy Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba visited the home affairs office in Johannesburg on Wednesday where police had to intervene in scuffles between Zimbabwean nationals earlier this week.

Spokesperson Bayanda Mzoneli said the minister "just came to make sure the implementation of the amnesty for Zimbabwean nationals with fraudulent documents was going well".

On Tuesday, a woman collapsed when Zimbabwean nationals lining up to claim amnesty at the regional office were sprayed with a substance by a police officer.

This happened around 3pm when disorder broke out among the several hundred Zimbabwean nationals queuing at the office in Harrison Street in the Johannesburg CBD.

Mzoneli said police were forced to intervene after there was a "misunderstanding" between amnesty seekers.

The misunderstanding arose after a group of Zimbabwean nationals decided to camp outside the office on Sunday to get a head start for applications on Monday.

But police asked them to leave after writing their names on a list.

The list was given to home affairs officials on Monday morning.

"Since Monday, we've had to process the list of people from Sunday and also the people who come every day... there was a misunderstanding yesterday [Tuesday] between the people who were listed on Sunday and the people who arrived at the office on Tuesday," said Mzoneli.

"It got sort of out of hand and we had to request assistance from the police."

The office can process 135 applications a day -- excluding enquiries -- and 359 people's names appeared on the Sunday list, he said.

Mzoneli said the applications of those from the Sunday list had been processed by Wednesday.

"The Sunday people are done."

He said the deputy minister also visited the Bloemfontein office on Wednesday morning.

"The deputy minister has observed that the Bloemfontein office receives fewer numbers... so perhaps the deployment of officials should match the demand of the office.

"So we might move officials from one office to the next."

A final decision would only be made after an audit had been done of all the busy and less busy home affairs offices, Mzoneli said.

On Wednesday morning, a group of people were waiting patiently outside the Harrison Street office, some saying they had been queuing since 4.30am. The situation was calm.

--Sapa

SA permit regime stands

South Africa's permit procedures will not change as a result of the special amnesty for Zimbabwean migrants, the home affairs department said on Thursday.

“We are not changing the permitting regime... This is a dispensation to assist Zimbabwean nationals. We don't want to sit in our country with this cloud on our heads,” director general Mkuseli Apleni told reporters in Pretoria.

Apleni said the process for applying for asylum and getting work and study permits would remain unchanged even with this new bilateral agreement with Zimbabwe.

Home affairs recently announced an amnesty for Zimbabweans, who had been using fraudulent South African identity books - to enable them to get the correct papers.

Zimbabweans who have held South African ID books would be issued with permits to their valid Zimbabwean passports, some for as long as years. The process started on Monday.

Apleni said a team of South African and Zimbabwean government officials would try and ensure that the documentation of that country's nationals ran smoothly.

The newly established SA-Zimbabwe task team would conduct daily visits at the department's regional offices. They would also encourage Zimbabweans to get documentation.

Acknowledging some problems since the start of the documentation process on Monday, Apleni said department officials also needed to understand what the project meant.

“We need to make sure that as a department we understand exactly what this project means. We still have some challenges with our people not understanding this and that.”

Despite the teething problems, he said they gave full support to the decision to document Zimbabweans living in South Africa.

The Movement for Democratic Change complained a few weeks ago that officials “knew nothing” about the project, as some people were apparently being turned away from regional offices.

Apleni said it was not up to officials at regional offices to turn applicants away, but the headquarters' responsibility to make that decision.

“We've instructed employees that the adjudication process is done at the headquarters. No one in any office had the right to say I will not grant you this because of this... their role is just to collect the documents and pass them on to headquarters.”

A track-and-trace system will be implemented in each office to assess how many applicants were received per day and how many were turned back.

Apleni indicated that the number of Zimbabweans making use of the opportunity was growing by the day. Figures would be released weekly, starting from next week.

Other nationals will in future benefit from this sort of amnesty.

Apleni urged Zimbabwean nationals living in South Africa illegally to heed the call to correct their documentation, adding that other nationals would in future benefit from this sort of amnesty.

MDC secretary Ngqabutho Dube said those who had already bought houses and obtained loans from banks with their South African IDs would be assisted through the stakeholders forum.

“The forum will engage with the business community to explain amnesty to them, and request them to co-operate so people can keep their property and not have them sold,” he said.

“It's critical for the MDC to ensure that no Zimbabwean national looses his/her property during this period.”

- Sapa

Joburg aims to integrate migrants

A PROGRESSIVE strategy that ensures the integration of migrants in the city was being adopted by Johannesburg.

So said Executive Mayor Amos Masondo, speaking at the third Hague International Migration Workshop, at Constitution Hill on 13 August. Hosted by the City of Johannesburg, it brings together City officials, NGOs and governmental representatives to discuss ways of providing for the health and housing needs of migrants. The workshop opened on Wednesday and ends today.

Masondo said that in just under 24 months, the City had developed a support strategy for migrants.

"Local government in South Africa, including the City of Johannesburg, is committed to ensuring that all those who live within its jurisdiction and abide by its laws have a decent quality of life."

It was important that local governments focused on the challenges of migration and urban governance. "This should be so in spite of limited financial resources and sometimes even a limited management capacity," he said.

Housing and health

The number of people living in Joburg was expected to grow by some 3,5 million people in the next 25 years. South Africa's policy of migrant and refugee settlement and urban integration, rather than confinement to camps, meant that migrants competed within the generally overburdened urban housing market.

Masondo assured the gathering that the City of Johannesburg was striving to deal with its housing shortage.

"The City has embarked on a mixed-income housing programme to ensure integrated and inclusive human settlements. By the year 2011, the City would have built 50,000 houses for mixed-income groups."

In terms of health care, no formal documents would be required at clinics, resulting in free primary health care and environmental health services being available to all, he said.

Jobs

Professor Lorren Landau, the director of forced migration studies at the University of the Witwatersrand, pointed out that foreign nationals contributed to Johannesburg's economy.

"In our research, we have found that those international migrants are typically better educated and [are] likely to generate jobs for South Africans."

The challenge for the city was to rout out xenophobia, ignorance and other forms of discrimination in the public bureaucracy, the police and the private sector.

"If we are to build an inclusive and prosperous city, we must rethink how we engage with populations," he said.

- Joburg - a world class African city

End of the line for illegal Zim nationals

It was announced at a Cabinet briefing yesterday that the decision was taken in order to legitimise the estimated 3 million Zimbabweans living in the country illegally, many with fake South Africa identity documents.

It will allow them time to obtain passports, work or study permits, as well as other documents that will permit them to be in the country legitimately. But if they don't get them by the end of the year, they will be sent packing.

Migration experts and NGOs have slammed the move, calling it an endorsement of "a policy of mass deportation".

Briefing journalists yesterday, government spokesman Themba Maseko said the Cabinet "had approved the proposal to end the special dispensation for Zimbabweans".

"The special dispensation that was put in place during the political crisis in Zimbabwe was to allow free movement of Zimbabweans into the country to come live, study and start businesses here without requiring a permit," he said.

"But we believe some form of stability has returned to Zimbabwe and therefore all Zimbabweans will now be treated like any other foreign nationals."

The special dispensation was introduced in April 2009, just as Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe was concluding his eight months as caretaker President.

It allowed Zimbabweans to obtain permits which granted them the right to stay in South Africa for six months, and the right to education, employment and healthcare in the country.

But the Cabinet's decision means that Zimbabweans living, working and studying in South Africa will have to apply for the necessary documentation from Zimbabwe and then apply to the South African Department of Home Affairs for work or study permits before the end of the year, or face deportation.

Maseko said there would be an amnesty for Zimbabweans who may have obtained South African identification documents fraudulently on condition that they return the fake IDs to home affairs and apply for legal documents.

Advocacy groups and immigration experts have slammed the Cabinet decision as short-sighted.

Duncan Breen, advocacy officer at the Consortium for Refugees and Migrants in South Africa, said the organisation "would be extremely concerned about any policy of mass deportation".

He said a permit which allows Zimbabwean migrants more flexibility between the countries would be more ideal.

"Internationally, what would be best would be some form of permit to enable people to go backward and forward. What that does is enable a greater number of people to remain in Zimbabwe," said Breen. (Timeslive)