Court must clear up ANC’s Zimbabwe mess

No doubt the xenophobes will be throwing up their hands in anger at the possibility that the high court may accede to an application to declare about 250 000 Zimbabweans, currently residing in the country on temporary permits, as permanent residents.

The legal action was brought by the Zimbabwean Exemption Permit Holders Association as a matter of urgency, because the temporary permits they hold will expire next month.

They are also asking the court to direct the minister of home affairs to issue them with SA ID documents on the grounds that they are permanent residents of SA in terms of the Immigration Act, read together with the Identification Act.

The decision by home affairs not to renew the permits was, the association argued, unfair, “knowing that the holders of the permits have known no other home besides South Africa for more than 10 years”.

In April 2009, Cabinet approved what was known as the Dispensation of Zimbabweans Project, allowing permit holders to work, conduct business and study in SA.

According to home affairs, 295 000 Zimbabweans had applied for the permit and just over 245 000 were issued.

This was an attempt to regularise the residence status of those Zimbabweans residing illegally in SA due to political and economic instability at home.

Various other extensions to the permits have been made since then.

Some will argue most Zimbabweans are not refugees fleeing from persecution, but just people trying to make a better life.

That, the argument goes, is exactly what South Africans are also trying to do and they should get preference when it comes to jobs and housing.

This mess is a direct result of the ANC’s vague policy on immigration … and trying to untangle it years later is bound to cause anger in many quarters.