SA extends Zimbabwe special permits by six months

South Africa has granted a six-month extension for special permits allowing Zimbabwean nationals to live and work in the nation, citing the few applications received so far from people to regularise their stay in the country by year-end.

The extension is until June 2023, the Department of Home Affairs said in a statement on its website Friday.

Read:

SA’s Zimbabwe exemption permit scheme is a money racket and a ‘fraud

Zimbabweans at risk of deportation prepare to take on banks, big corporates

South Africa plans to end most special permits for foreigners as it revamps its immigration policies to manage an influx of economic migrants. At least 178,000 Zimbabwean national faced deportation from the nation after the expiry of their special permits was due on December 31.

Africa’s most industrialised nation has been a magnet for people seeking better economic opportunities from across the continent, particularly from the Southern African Development Community countries. Arrivals ballooned in 2008 as the global financial crisis combined with an economic collapse in Zimbabwe triggered mass migration, Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi said in an interview in August.

The presence of foreigners in South Africa has sparked resentment among some locals, who see them as competitors for scarce jobs, health care and housing, and the country has been wracked by intermittent xenophobic violence.

© 2022 Bloomberg