Lesotho Home Affairs Minister has appealed to South Africa to delay penalties for overstaying, until all eligible Lesotho Special Permit holders are processed at the end of June.
This as the main Maseru border post between Lesotho and South Africa says it is ready to handle the thousands of travellers expected to cross during the Easter holidays.
Many Basothos working or studying in South Africa are undocumented. More than 100 000 have applied for the Lesotho Special Permit that closed at the end of March.
Immigration Manager at the Maseru Border, Malefane Mojakhomo says the challenges they come across are people who have lost their documents or who might try to cross at undesignated ports of entry.
“If they have lost their documents, we urge them to come to our officers to get help because they might end up getting mugged at the unauthorised ports of entry” he adds.
Mojakhomo also warns that those who still don’t have the Lesotho Special Permit may face penalties.
Advocate Lekhetho Rakuoane Lesotho Minister of Home Affairs says their appeal is that there is still a lot of confusion especially with people who have pending applications.
“Our fear is that they are going to be penalised by their employers. So we thought we need some kind of moratorium while we are processing the pending applications. But the main port of entries say they will open extra service points and hours to handle the traffic and challenges expected to peak between Thursday and Monday” he added.
– By Nthakoana Ngatane
