Terminating ZEP Without Proper Public Consultation Unlawful, South African NGO Tells Court
The Helen Suzman Foundation (HSF)’s legal team on Tuesday, 11 April 2023 said terminating the Zimbabwean Exemption Permit (ZEP) scheme without proper public consultation is unlawful.
The Pretoria High Court is currently hearing a challenge that the HSF brought against the termination of the special permit for Zimbabweans by South Africa’s Department of Home Affairs.
Eye Witness News reported that in his opening address, Advocate Steven Budlender, for the foundation, said the termination of the ZEP programme will turn upside down the lives of people who had been in South Africa legally for several years.
Budlender argued that neither ZEP holders nor South Africans at large were given the chance to express their thoughts before the decision was taken. He said:
We have a decision that is going to fundamentally change people’s lives and it’s a decision that was taken without any attempt to hear them first – a common cause.
It’s a decision that the minister has told these people repeatedly he will not reconsider.
… In a constitutional dispensation can a minister say to people who’ve been here 13 years lawfully: ‘I’m going to decide your fate, I’m going to put in place a decision which is going to decide your fate and which requires you effectively to leave the country’ – without hearing them first?
And we say, no. We say if the Constitution means anything, and if PAJA (Promotion of Administrative Justice Act) means anything and if the principle of legality means anything that could never be a proper view.
Around 2008, thousands of Zimbabweans crossed the border into South Africa seeking better economic opportunities after the Zimbabwean economy had virtually collapsed.
South Africa then introduced the Dispensation of Zimbabwean Permit (DZP) to legalise Zimbabweans living and working in the country in 2009.
In 2014, the DZP was renamed to the Zimbabwe Special Permit (ZSP). The name changed again three years later to Zimbabwe Exemption Permit or ZEP.
In September 2022, South Africa’s Department of Home Affairs extended the permit which was due to expire on December 31, for a further six months to June 30, 2023.
South Africa allowed ZEP holders with critical skills to apply for visas to remain in the country.
According to the Zimbabwean Exemption Permit Holders Association (ZEPHA), the number of permit holders is about 160 000, but each person has an average of three to four dependents.
This means that close to one million Zimbabweans will be negatively affected by South Africa’s decision to discontinue the ZEP scheme.
More: Pindula News
