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

Hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans are at risk of deportation when the Zimbabwe Exemption Permit (ZEP) scheme ends in December.

Lawyers representing the permit holders say they are preparing to haul banks to court to prevent them from closing the accounts of any ZEP holder.

“Sadly, we have to go to court to protect our rights,” says Advocate Simba Chitando, who is representing the ZEP Holders Association (Zepha).

“This is the largest fraud ever committed by an African government on the citizens of another African country, and it must be brought to an end.

“One of the reasons cited by the Department of Home Affairs for suspending the ZEP system is the cost of administering the system. It says it only had R15 million available for exemption permits, yet Zimbabweans have paid hundreds of millions of rands to Home Affairs to obtain these permits,” says Chitando.

“Home Affairs has been bilking Zimbabweans, most of them poor, for more than a decade.”

Also targeted for legal action is VFS Global, owned by one of the world’s largest private equity firms, US-based Blackstone.

VFS Global is responsible for processing the exemption permits on behalf of Home Affairs.

Attorneys representing Zepha have written to VFS Global asking it to account for the number of applications it processed under the ZEP system, and its predecessor, the Zimbabwe Special Dispensation Permit (ZSP).

Zepha estimates that close to half a billion rand would have been paid over by Zimbabweans applying for these permits.

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

“We will not hesitate to take legal action against Blackstone, in the United States, using lawyers based there,” adds Chitando.

“We intend to mobilise civil society in the US to expose the practice of never-ending expensive applications and extensions, instead of simply providing ZEP holders with permanent residence permits.”

ZEP holders have started receiving notices from FNB that their permits will no longer be valid after 31 December 2022, and must be replaced with a ‘mainstream’ visa after the Department of Home Affairs decided to end the ZEP system.

The notice does not explain what will happen to those FNB customers who are ZEP holders and do not qualify for a ‘mainstream’ visa, though many fear their accounts will be closed, thereby throttling their ability to continue living and working in SA.

Read: Zimbabweans ask High Court to declare them permanent residents

The ZEP system has been in operation in various forms since 2009, allowing Zimbabweans to live, work, study and conduct business in SA. It was introduced to legitimise the status of Zimbabweans in SA, many of whom fled the political and economic chaos at home.

Last year Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi announced the ZEP scheme would be terminated at the end of 2021. He then extended the termination period by a year to allow an estimated 178 000 permit holders to apply for alternative visas.

ZEP representatives in SA believe Home Affairs is responding to and fuelling xenophobia, already at dangerously high levels after massive job losses brought on by Covid lockdowns.

Motsoaledi’s decision to suspend the scheme is being challenged in three separate court cases brought by the Helen Suzman Foundation, the Zimbabwean Exemption Permit Holders Association (Zepha), and the Zimbabwe Immigration Federation.

All three are asking the courts to set aside the minister’s decision to suspend the ZEP system, pointing to the disastrous impact it will have on the region if potentially hundreds of thousands of people are forced to repatriate to a country with one of the highest unemployment rates in the world. These cases are likely to be heard in October.

One of the reasons cited by Home Affairs for suspending the permit scheme is to ease unemployment in SA – though this is refuted by the Zimbabwe Immigration Federation, which argues in its court papers that the 178 000 ZEP holders constitute just 0.3% of SA’s population of about 60 million.

There is some evidence of back-tracking by Home Affairs, after some ZEP holders received letters from the department’s director-general Livhuwani Makhode that ZEP ‘waiver applications’ are being reconsidered by the minister pending legal advice.

“It has come to our attention that the banks have been weaponised by the government to enforce the shakedown of ZEP holders, who risk their accounts being frozen if they do not apply for visas many do not qualify for, because Home Affairs has made documentation all but impossible,” says Chitando.

FNB’s response

“FNB is monitoring developments regarding the status of Zimbabwean Exemption Permits (ZEPs) and communicates regularly to customers who may be affected.

“Our latest communication to customers who are ZEP holders aims to inform them about the most recent directive from the Department of Home Affairs and the options available to them.

“The term ‘mainstream visas’ in our customer communication generally refers to visas that are prescribed under the Immigration Act,” the bank states.

“We are committed to helping our customers to ensure that their bank accounts are used and managed in accordance with the relevant laws. Our customers can also contact us directly if they have any questions or need assistance with their bank accounts.”

Moneyweb reached out to VFS Global for comment, but had not received a reply by the time of publication.