By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The Helen Suzman Foundation (HSF) has launched an urgent application at the Pretoria high court to suspend the arrest or deportation of Zimbabwe Exemption Permits (ZEP) holders.
The application is in response to Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi’s application to appeal two Gauteng High Court in Pretoria judgments relating to the permits.
In June, a full Bench of the court found against Motsoaledi on two different issues relating to the ZEPs.
In one, the court found that Motsoaledi’s decision to terminate the ZEP was invalid, unlawful and unconstitutional.
It extended the validity of the permits until June 2024.
The court also ordered in both matters that ZEP holders not be arrested or deported and that permit holders must be allowed to enter or leave South Africa.
The matter was between the department, the HSF and the Consortium for Refugees and Migrants in South Africa.
The foundation’s executive director Nicole Fritz said the leave to appeal process suspended the operation of the underlying order in an ordinary course, adding that this meant that permit holders wouldn’t get any actual relief or help in the end.
“ZEP holders would also be deprived of their rights even if the SCA [Supreme Court of Appeal] and the Constitutional Court ultimately dismiss the minister’s appeal, as any judgment from the appellate courts would only be expected in a year or more. Accordingly, this application is necessary to avert a human catastrophe which this court has explicitly sought to prevent,” said Fritz in her affidavit.
“The effect of the minister’s position is that by December 31 2023, 178,000 ZEP holders, their family members and children, face the risk of being stripped of their existing rights, arrested, detained and deported, despite the court’s judgment and order.”
Fritz said the court order “shields thousands of ZEP holders and their children from the chaos and upheaval of arrest and deportation”.
The ZEP system was introduced in 2009 to regularise the status of Zimbabweans fleeing to SA for political or economic reasons. It allows permit holders to live, work and study in SA.