No progress or clarity on SA permits for Zimbabweans
By Lance Guma
03 September 2007.

Last week South Africa’s Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula raised the hopes of millions of Zimbabweans living in that country after suggesting her government might consider granting them temporary residence permits. In what many said was a tacit admission Zimbabwe’s crisis has gone out of hand, Mapisa-Nqakula told reporters the government needed to adopt a new approach to deal with Zimbabwean citizens flocking into South Africa. She said deportations were a waste of money as people were going back within days of being kicked out of the country.

Her suggestions are now the talk on every Zimbabwean’s lips. Nixon Nyikadzino, an activist with the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition SA chapter, said the issue of permits was still ‘water in the bottle’ and a lot of things were still unclear. He says temporary residence permits for example may not necessarily entitle someone to work. There is talk over whether people will have to go back to Zimbabwe and apply for the permits or not. Nyikadzino says the Minister’s remarks however seemed to be directed at Zimbabweans already in South Africa.

Another sticking point is that South Africa already offers work and residents permits to Zimbabweans who qualify under set criteria, so how different would Mapisa-Nqakula’s proposal be? Even the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) was cautious in its welcoming of the proposal. ZCTU Secretary General Wellington Chibhebhe told reporters they hoped the new development would stop Zimbabweans being exploited by unscrupulous employers who pay them below stipulated minimum wages. He however reiterated that the SA government should not discriminate against those who did not have qualifications.

But whether resident’s permits will help tackle xenophobia, Nyikadzino remains unconvinced. He says some South Africans blame Zimbabweans for taking their jobs and this was now an attitude more than anything to do with the law.