The Department of Home Affairs is on track to meet the July deadline it set to adjudicate the 275 762 applications received from Zimbabweans wanting to regularise their stay in South Africa.

Home Affairs Deputy Director-General Jackie McKay said the department had already adjudicated 273 514 of the applications received.

The adjudication of just 2 248 applications was still pending, with the department having already issued 133 810 permits to Zimbabwean nationals.

The department was aware that many Zimbabweans were concerned because they had not yet received their permits, McKay said.

“As we previously indicated, we will conclude the adjudication of the application by 31 July 2011 and we will finalise all outstanding matters in August 2011. This will allow us sufficient time to dispatch all the required permits,” he added.

Meanwhile, the department has been cracking down on illegal immigrants in recent weeks.

McKay said the department’s Inspectorate Unit, together with the Hawks, conducted a national sting operation called Full Force on 13 July.

“This was aimed at cracking down on the illegal facilitation of foreign nationals into South Africa using fraudulently acquired documents with the view of stemming the tide of illegal immigration into the country,” he said.

The operation was conducted at the offices of Chinese IT company, ZTE, in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and Durban.

After screening documents, eight Chinese nationals at the Johannesburg office were found to be in contravention of immigration laws and were voluntarily deported, McKay said.

In Cape Town, five Chinese nationals were arrested for failing to comply with conditions of their permits in terms of the Immigration Act, while the passports of eight Chinese nationals were seized for further investigations in Port Elizabeth.

In a separate operation carried out in Limpopo by the Inspectorate Unit, together with State Security and the Hawks at the weekend, three Pakistani nationals were arrested for being in the country illegally.