South Africa extends Zimbabwe permits until December 2023

Minister says move to allow ZEP permit holders to switch to regular visas

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa – Over 180,000 Zimbabwean nationals on special permits to live and work in South Africa have won a fresh reprieve to remain in Africa’s most industrialised nation for another six months.

The Zimbabwe Exemption Permits (ZEP), first extended in December 2021 for a year and then in December for a six-month period, were due to expire at the end of this month.

In a notice on Wednesday, South Africa’s home affairs minister Aaron Motsoaledi announced that he was extending the permits for a further six months “in order to allow the holders to apply for one or other visas and waivers provided for in the Immigration Act that they may qualify for.”

The permits will now expire on December 31, 2023.

In 2009, the South African government announced what was then known as the Dispensation of Zimbabweans Project (DZP) which provided amnesty to undocumented Zimbabwean nationals and those with fraudulent South African immigration documents to regularise their stay.

It expired in 2014 and was replaced by the Zimbabwean Special Dispensation Permit (ZSP) which expired in 2017 when the current permit, the Zimbabwean Exemption Permit, was introduced with a validity of up to December 31, 2021.

Following the extension, employers must allow ZEP holders to continue working if they provide proof of a visa application, and ZEP holders can travel without restriction until the end of 2023.

Some of the affected Zimbabweans have gone to court demanding that the South African government should issue them with citizenship.