Cape Town – The Helen Suzman Foundation (HSF) has filed a lawsuit against the South African government for its decision to terminate the Zimbabwean Exemption Permit (ZEP), which allows approximately 178 000 Zimbabweans to live and work in the country.
According to News24, the ZEP ended on December 31, 2021.
Those with a permit have been given a 12-month grace period to either apply for another type of permit or leave the country, said the report.
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“This special dispensation regime has offered legal protection to approximately 178 000 Zimbabwean nationals allowing them to live, work and study in South Africa.
“It has prevailed for well over a decade, meaning that permit-holders have built lives, families and careers here and contributed to South Africa and its economy.
“It is not the position of HSF that those migrants who are in South Africa unlawfully should be entitled to remain, nor even that the ZEP must continue in perpetuity. Rather, our position is that those who have scrupulously observed South Africa’s laws in order to live and work here, under the ZEP, cannot have such permits terminated without fair process, good reason and a meaningful opportunity to regularise their status. It is what our constitutional order demands,” said the HSF in a statement.
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Compiled by Sinothando Siyolo
