Zulu, who is also chairperson of the ruling African National
Congress (ANC)’s international relations subcommittee, made the call on Monday
during a discussion on party policy documents.
Her remarks came as Pretoria has given Zimbabwe Exemption
Permits (ZEPs) holders up to December to regularise their stay under new
tougher conditions, which have been largely seen as a deliberate ploy to cut
the number of expatriates in that country.
Pretoria has said the ZEP permits will not be renewed
beyond December.
“When it comes to the issue of Home Affairs, and you were
saying maybe we are sending Zimbabweans back to starve, as the ANC, we believe
that all countries need to take responsibility for their citizens,” Zulu was
quoted as saying by the South African media.
“First and foremost, we take responsibility for our
citizens. We make sure that despite the challenges that we have of poverty,
unemployment and inequality, we shouldn’t be having South Africans leaving
South Africa with almost nothing.
“… leaving South Africa and going to neighbouring countries
to go and look for greener pastures when they aren’t even that much of the
greener pastures that we can talk about.”
Zulu was a key member of former leader Thabo Mbeki’s
mediation team at the inception and implementation of Zimbabwe’s Global
Political Agreement that gave birth to the Government of National Unity in
2009.
Contacted for comment yesterday, Foreign Affairs minister
Fredrick Shava said he was off duty.
His deputy David Musabayana said: “Call me later, I am in a
meeting.”
An estimated 180 000 Zimbabweans could be affected by a
decision not to renew the ZEP permits as statistics show that less than 3% of
this group had applied to regularise their stay by the end of last month.
ZEPs were introduced in 2009.
South Africa has been tightening screws on Zimbabwean
immigrants and other foreign nationals.
There is also a growing chorus from pressure groups in that
country to have foreign immigrants deported.
There are no exact statistics on the number of documented
and undocumented Zimbabwean immigrants in the neighbouring country, but
estimates put the figure at just over three million. Newsday
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