Lawyers for activist group, Zimbabweans Working and Living in South Africa plan to approach the High Court in Pretoria on Tuesday to seek an urgent interdict to prevent the South African government from terminating over 180 000 exemption permits.
Government has scrapped the Zimbabwean Exemption Permits (ZEP) which expire on 31 December 2021 after a year’s grace period for Zimbabweans in South Africa to apply for alternative special permits.
The activist group’s advocate Simba Chitando says, “We are in court on Tuesday and we are challenging the decision which expects all ZEP holders to apply for special permits to work here. There are no specific reasons in the decision made by parliament. We could only speculate as to why. And it’s only of political pressure that’s put on by various political groups to put South Africans first and South African politics.”
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Immigration specialist, Pieter Britz says government should have given the ZEP holders four years to change to the mainstream permit.
