Hundreds of hundreds of Zimbabweans are at risk of deportation when the Zimbabwe Exemption Permit (ZEP) scheme ends in December.
Lawyers representing the allow holders say they’re getting ready to haul banks to court docket to forestall 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’s representing the ZEP Holders Association (Zepha).
“This is the most important fraud ever dedicated by an African authorities on the residents of one other African nation, and it have to be introduced to an finish.
“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 focused for authorized motion is VFS Global, owned by one of the world’s largest non-public fairness corporations, US-based Blackstone.
VFS Global is accountable for processing the exemption permits on behalf of Home Affairs.
Attorneys representing Zepha have written to VFS Global asking it to account for the quantity of functions it processed below the ZEP system, and its predecessor, the Zimbabwe Special Dispensation Permit (ZSP).
Zepha estimates that shut to half a billion rand would have been paid over by Zimbabweans making use of for these permits.
Read: SA’s Zimbabwe exemption allow scheme is a cash racket and a ‘fraud’
“We will not hesitate to take legal action against Blackstone, in the United States, using lawyers based there,” provides 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 began receiving notices from FNB that their permits will not be legitimate after 31 December 2022, and have to be changed with a ‘mainstream’ visa after the Department of Home Affairs determined to finish the ZEP system.
The discover doesn’t clarify what’s going to occur to these FNB prospects who’re ZEP holders and don’t qualify for a ‘mainstream’ visa, although many concern their accounts shall be closed, thereby throttling their capability to proceed dwelling and dealing in SA.
Read: Zimbabweans ask High Court to declare them everlasting residents
The ZEP system has been in operation in varied kinds since 2009, permitting Zimbabweans to dwell, work, examine and conduct enterprise in SA. It was launched to legitimise the standing of Zimbabweans in SA, many of whom fled the political and financial chaos at residence.
Last yr Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi introduced the ZEP scheme could be terminated at the top of 2021. He then prolonged the termination interval by a yr to enable an estimated 178 000 allow holders to apply for different visas.
ZEP representatives in SA consider Home Affairs is responding to and fuelling xenophobia, already at dangerously excessive ranges after huge job losses introduced on by Covid lockdowns.
Motsoaledi’s resolution to droop the scheme is being challenged in three separate court docket circumstances introduced by the Helen Suzman Foundation, the Zimbabwean Exemption Permit Holders Association (Zepha), and the Zimbabwe Immigration Federation.
All three are asking the courts to put aside the minister’s resolution to droop the ZEP system, pointing to the disastrous impression it is going to have on the area if doubtlessly tons of of hundreds of individuals are pressured to repatriate to a rustic with one of the best unemployment charges on the planet. These circumstances are probably to be heard in October.
One of the explanations cited by Home Affairs for suspending the allow scheme is to ease unemployment in SA – although that is refuted by the Zimbabwe Immigration Federation, which argues in its court docket papers that the 178 000 ZEP holders represent simply 0.3% of SA’s inhabitants of about 60 million.
There is a few proof of back-tracking by Home Affairs, after some ZEP holders obtained letters from the division’s director-general Livhuwani Makhode that ZEP ‘waiver applications’ are being reconsidered by the minister pending authorized recommendation.
“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 concerning the standing of Zimbabwean Exemption Permits (ZEPs) and communicates recurrently to prospects who could also be affected.
“Our newest communication to prospects who’re ZEP holders goals to inform them about the newest directive from the Department of Home Affairs and the choices obtainable to them.
“The term ‘mainstream visas’ in our customer communication generally refers to visas that are prescribed under the Immigration Act,” the financial institution 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 remark, however had not obtained a reply by the point of publication.
