Today, 31 December 2010 marks the closing date for the regularisation of Zimbabweans as decided by our cabinet and agreed upon with the Zimbabwean authorities by our Minister Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma.
In this regard, all our offices across the country have experienced large numbers of Zimbabweans who seek to regularize their stay in South Africa in line with the cabinet decision. We welcome this large turnout of Zimbabweans in our offices and can assure them that all those who will still be in the queues by close of business today will indeed be served, in line with Minister Dlamini Zuma’s directive.
We reiterate our conviction that the large turn-out of Zimbabweans in our offices since the announcement of the deadline and in the days leading up to the deadline is a consequence of a deep desire by the majority of illegal Zimbabweans living in South Africa to comply with our country’s immigration laws, lead normal lives without the constant fear of deportation.
In line with Minister Dlamini Zuma’s directive, all senior management has been deployed to various centres across the country to ensure the necessary interventions are made as and when required with a view to ensuring service is delivered and the ministerial directive is carried out to the letter.
At our Headquarters, we have established a co-coordinating centre which is in contact with all our offices across the country to receive reports on a regular basis, make the necessary adjustments and interventions where necessary throughout the day. We stand ready in all our offices to ensure the project is finalized today with minimal disruptions.
Accordingly as at 13h00 today, 31 December 2010, a total 232 365 applications were received from 42 regional offices across the country. Over the past weeks we have been emphasising the need for our regional offices to collect application forms from Zimbabweans with the view to adjudicating at a later stage. In this regard applicants will be informed via sms on the status of their applications.
We have also engaged the services of the South African Police Service and Metro Police to assist in the management of queues to ensure we can deliver services as humanely as possible and to meet the deadline.
We take this opportunity to thank the various organizations representing Zimbabweans and operating within the borders of the Republic for their sterling work in working jointly with the Department of Home Affairs in the SA-Zimbabwe Stakeholder Forum to mobilise Zimbabweans in all corners of the country to take advantage of the opportunity to regularise their stay in South Africa.
The mobilisation also witnessed the submission of a number fraudulent documents including passports, identity documents, permits and various certificates being returned to Home Affairs offices across the country in line with the cabinet decision to extend an olive branch in the form of amnesty.
Our mobilisation also witnessed our officers visiting various farms in terms of an agreement with farmers' organisations to help with the registration of their Zimbabweans living and working on their farms
The Department has also engaged with various stakeholders including the SABRIC, the insurance industry, the Financial Intelligence Centre and all major banks with a view to assisting those who return fraudulently acquired documents to the department and to enable them to lead normal lives.
We will endeavour that those who remain on the queues at the close of business today are indeed served. We reiterate our view that there has not been any discussion in cabinet about extension of the deadline. Accordingly, there will be no extension of the deadline as announced by Minister Dlamini Zuma recently.
On behalf of the Minister of Home Affairs Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma and the cabinet we are happy to state that from reports received from all 42 regional offices across the country has been a success. In this regard, we extend our gratitude to all those involved in the project including our officers across the country, who contributed immensely to the success of the project.
Media enquiries:
Ronnie Mamoepa
Cell: 082 990 4853
