JOHANNESBURG – South Africa is urging Zimbabwean Exemption Permit holders to transition to permanent residency and other mainstream visas, deputy home affairs minister Njabulo Nzuza said on Monday.
Nzuza said the ZEP – first introduced in 2009 to allow more than 200,000 eligible Zimbabweans to live and work in South Africa – was always intended as a temporary arrangement, and holders should now be looking at longer-term options.
“The ZEP was a special permit issued to Zimbabweans under certain conditions and we have been renewing it over time,” he told Newzroom Afrika. “We have been calling on those holders of that permit to look at other legal pathways in which they may apply for permanent residence or any other form of permit, because the exemption permit itself was meant to be a temporary arrangement.”
He stressed that those wishing to remain in South Africa should make formal applications rather than rely on continued renewals.
“If they seek to stay in the country, they must apply for other forms of entry into the country, including applying for permanent residence and other permits,” he added.
Nzuza cautioned, however, that the process would not amount to a blanket regularisation.
“All those applications will be looked at on merit; it’s not going to be a blanket approach where you say all ZEP holders are now permanent residents. Each and every person should apply and then we determine if they qualify,” he explained.
The deputy minister also addressed economic migrants specifically, urging them to apply for business permits rather than enter the asylum seeker system as a route to eventual permanent residency.
The announcement comes months after the department of Home Affairs extended the ZEP’s validity to May 28, 2027.
