SA IN MASS DEPORTATION OF ZIMBAS

As South Africa plans to deport thousands of Zimbabweans, the government has sprung into action, holding talks with the SA government.

South Africa’s Home Affairs minister, Leon Schreiber, told that country’s Parliament that Pretoria spent R53 817 656 deporting undocumented immigrants, the majority of whom are Zimbabweans.

Of the 19 750 deported undocumented immigrants, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Tanzania, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo were the majority.

Pretoria has warned Zimbabwean immigrants and those from other countries to regularise their stay or face deportation. There are an estimated 180 000 Zimbabwean Exemption Permit (ZEP) holders in South Africa.

Newsday reports that Justice minister Ziyambi Ziyambi said the government was engaging Pretoria over the planned deportations of undocumented citizens.

“South Africa has its own laws that govern their own immigration. What we can do as a government is to ensure that the needs of our people, wherever possible, are governed by the bilateral relations that we have, that we can assist them,” Ziyambi said in the Senate on Wednesday.

“The issue of Zimbabweans in South Africa is that the South African government has decided that they no longer want to renew the permits that were given after 2008, they said that they wanted to remove them.”

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