Helen Suzman Foundation (HSF) executive director Nicole Fritz noted on Tuesday that if the organisation’s court applications against the Department of Home Affairs’ (DHA's) decision to scrap Zimbabwean Exemption Permits (ZEP) does not prevail, and if there are no further permit extensions, the HSF hopes for the granting of waivers and exemptions.

The HSF, along with the Zimbabwe Immigration Federation and permit holders, have been challenging the department’s decision which the foundation said would affect more than 170 000 permit holders.

In April, the DHA extended the blanket concession to  December 31, for long-term visa or waiver applicants who are awaiting outcomes of their applications.

The ZEP has since been extended four times already.

The decision means that long-term visa or waiver applicants are permitted to legally remain in the country until December 31, pending the finalisation of their applications.

Those that are travelling on passports issued by countries that are not visa exempted, are required to apply for a visitor’s visa to return to South Africa until their applications have been finalised. This concession is only applicable to applicants who have submitted an application via visa application centre VFS before or on March 31.

Speaking during a Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr webinar on ZEPs, Fritz said the termination of the permit would be catastrophic, as it would leave most ZEP holders with an impossible choice to return to Zimbabwe or remain in South Africa as undocumented migrants with all the vulnerability that attaches to such status.

“For most ZEP holders and their families, relocating to Zimbabwe would be catastrophic, not only because the lives they have built in South Africa cannot be replicated in Zimbabwe, but because present day Zimbabwe resembles too closely the country they fled around 2008,” she said.

She said Zimbabwe remained beset by political instability and an economy that had all but collapsed.

“Children of ZEP holders, who have known no home but South Africa, would face a disastrous disruption to their education, inability to access healthcare and even inadequate nutrition, shelter and social assistance. As an undocumented migrant in South Africa, an erstwhile ZEP holder will be left without the means to lawfully find work, start a business, study or access basic financial services like opening a bank account. Remaining in South Africa would, thus, not only be against the law but significantly add to the hardship already experienced by ZEP holders,” Fritz explained.

She called for proper consultations with stakeholders, particularly those mostly severely impacted by Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi’s decision to terminate the ZEP. The HSF wants “proper reasons” for a decision to terminate the ZEP.

The foundation believes the department’s decision was made without consulting ZEP holders or the South African public at large and that given the destructive effect that the ZEP’s abrupt termination will have on the lives of its holders and their children, the Minister’s decision unjustifiably limits their constitutional rights.

The HSF is seeking a declaration that the Minister’s decision is unconstitutional, unlawful and invalid and that it be set aside.

Fritz added that following it being set aside, HSF asked that the decision to terminate the ZEP be sent back to the Minister to consider afresh, by following a proper, procedurally fair process.

“Once a proper, procedurally fair process has been followed, a fair notice must be communicated so that people can have real opportunity to plan and make provision for that decision,” she said.

She highlighted that the HSF does not ask that the court order that the ZEP remain valid in perpetuity.