Minister of Home Affairs, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma has issued a departmental directive that all foreigners seeking extensions to their individual permits in terms of the provisions of the Immigration Act, 2002 be granted such extensions within 48 hours. This includes all permits excluding the Intra-Company Company Transfer Permit.
Through this intervention, we will address the situation where applicants awaiting extension of their permits are granted Form 20 which legalises their stay in the country, but does not allow them to work, study, travel or conduct any business. This has impacted negatively on the lives of applicants who met the requirements of the act by applying within the required 30 day period.
By granting extensions within 48 hours, the applicants will be able to travel, work, study and conduct business as stated in the initial terms and conditions of the permit they seek to extend. In this regard the department has now done away with Form 20.
Minister Dlamini Zuma’s directive is a consequence of a thorough analysis that identified various logjams which previously acted as impediments in the department’s quest to expeditiously address applications for permit extensions.
The directive by the minister follows various measures announced last week to centralise the issuing and extension of all permits. It is anticipated that the additional measures being announced today will provide further impetus to government’s drive towards accelerating quality service delivery to all citizens and foreigners alike.
Minister Dlamini Zuma said, “The additional steps announced today, once again demonstrates both the department’s and government’s commitment towards ensuring that we relentlessly pursue our collective objective to provide quality service delivery to all citizens and visitors to our country.” “We are confident that journey we have embarked on, will be a further boost to government’s New Growth Path to address the pressing matters of job creation, the attraction of scarce skills and overall socio-economic growth,” she said.
To underpin Minister Dlamini Zuma’s directive that extensions of all applicable permits be resolved within 48 hours, the Department has now put in place the following measures:
- A dedicated email facility, permit.extension@dha.gov.za, where foreigners can contact the Department to verify the status of their applications for an extension. Applications will still be received in the regional offices.
- The creation of a dedicated fax line, 086 532 6320, to submit proof of application to expedite the issuing of permits.
- The department has also established a dedicated call centre where dedicated staff will assist foreigners’ seeking assistance. The following are the dedicated contact numbers for the call centre: 082 888 8328082 809 5307082 801 8766079 519 3105
It is important that when seeking to utilise the above-mentioned facilities, foreigners must provide a copy of the department’s acknowledgement of receipt issued at the time of application including their passport or reference number.
This new service will be in operation from Monday 30 November 2010 and will be operational during 07h00 to 16h00.
We are confident that these measures will make a significant contribution towards enhancing the Department’s approach to the speedy extension or the issuing of new permits.
Regularisations of Zimbabweans update 3
In this regard, I take this opportunity to welcome our colleague from Zimbabwe, Maqembu Ngwenya from the Zimbabweans in Diaspora in Southern Africa (ZIDIASA, one of our stakeholders who are in attendance at this briefing to hand over a number of fraudulent documents previously acquired by Zimbabwean nationals. We welcome this initiative and urge more Zimbabweans to follow suit and come forward with their fraudulent documents.
His organisation has over the past few weeks led a campaign among Zimbabwean nationals living in South Africa to hand over fraudulently acquired South African ID’s and permits. So far ZIDIASA has managed to organise 151 passports and copies of ID’s to be handed over to our offices in Tirro and Watloo. Today he has brought a further 12 as samples of such ID’s. As a government we sincerely want to express our deep appreciation for these efforts and express the hope that others will indeed emulate this example. Thus far, a total of 2 000 fraudulent IDs, passports, birth certificates have been received from Zimbabweans in our offices across the country.
Zimbabwean stakeholders, at a meeting with Minister Dlamini Zuma on Tuesday this week, highlighted a few challenges related to the project’s 31 December 2010 deadline. In the first instance, we re-iterate Minister Dlamini Zuma’s statement that the 31 December 2010 deadline will not be extended. In this regard, we urge all Zimbabweans seeking to regularise their stay in South Africa to ensure that their applications with the requisite documentation is submitted to the department by this deadline.
Furthermore, Zimbabweans are also encouraged to submit their applications to other Home Affairs offices to reduce congestion. We assure all Zimbabweans who have met this deadline, that they will not risk deportation or any other penalties while their applications are being processed. We reiterate our call for Zimbabweans to approach all our regional offices for this process, rather than just approaching a few of our offices such as Harrison Street, Market Street in Johannesburg and Tirro in Pretoria.
However, we need to re-emphasise that any application received after 31 December 2010 will not be processed. The challenge of Zimbabweans residing in South Africa without any form of identification was also raised. This makes it difficult for them to obtain Zimbabwean passports. We reiterate the request that these stakeholders forward us a database of such Zimbabwean nationals seeking assistance in order for the department to respond appropriately.
Similarly, with regard to allegations of police harassment, Minister Dlamini Zuma requested those with evidence to bring it to her attention with a view to discussing the matter with the Minister of Police, Nathi Mthethwa.
