As South Africa began issuing the ZSP permits last month, those rejected were given no option of an appeal. “I am one of those that have been rejected, but I cannot go back to Zimbabwe because I know how life is there,” said Sizakele Moyo.
“The authorities claim that I had some documents missing, but I know I submitted all the required documents. The other problem is that, unlike in 2010, there is no option of appeal this time round, but I am not going back to Zimbabwe.”
Almost all of those rejected were given the same reason – documents missing from the list they submitted.
“This looks like a uniform rejection reason, yet there are people that we helped submit and we can confirm that they did submit all the required documents,” said a member of the ZSP Partners Committee, a coalition of migrants’ rights groups based in Gauteng.
The committee, still seeking an extension for the ZSP programme, is scheduled to meet with the Department of Home Affairs later this week.
At the close of the online application process on December 31, 2014, about 207,000 applicants had submitted their renewal requests out of a total of 295,000 people that applied when the first special permit was rolled out in 2010.
Notwithstanding deaths, relocation and loss of interest by some of the first applicants, the ZSP Partners Committee believes there could still be many people who missed out on the December 31 deadline for a number of reasons.
Post published in: News