DA minister fastracking ZEPs applications
The Democratic Alliance Home Affairs Minister, Leon Schreiber, has set up a new technical team that would fast-track the work permit application process for Zimbabwe Exemption Permit (ZEP) holders.
About 178,000 ZEP holders who are authorized to live and work in South Africa face a looming deadline as their permits expire by 2025.
In response, both Zimbabweans and their employers have been actively applying for regular work permits.
The push for a more streamlined process began in 2022 when Aaron Motsoaledi, the then Minister of Home Affairs, introduced a waiver allowing ZEP holders to apply for mainstream work visas without needing to secure certifications from the Department of Labour and the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA). This initiative was aimed at facilitating a smoother transition from the ZEP scheme.
However, Schreiber noted an issue where the waiver for the SAQA certificate was mistakenly omitted from the notifications sent to ZEP holders. “This defeated the purpose of the waiver, as it created a bottleneck with home affairs officials unsure of how to process the applications. A legal opinion further confirmed that this oversight needed to be corrected through a technical amendment issued via a circular,” he explained.
The necessary amendment was officially published this Wednesday. Schreiber expressed optimism about the adjustment: “Thanks to this correction, we hope to speed up the process of migrating away from the ZEP towards mainstream work visas for applicants who contribute to the economy and qualify in terms of the law. It should be noted that the waiver only enables ZEP holders to submit applications more speedily and does not influence the subsequent outcome of any application. All relevant criteria must still be met for a specific application to be successful.”
Moreover, Schreiber highlighted the substantial backlog of visa applications, which stood at 306,000 at the end of May. To address this, the department’s “backlog team” is now working in two daily shifts to mitigate the delays.
Concluding, Schreiber emphasized that the technical amendment is part of a broader effort by the department to eliminate regulatory bottlenecks and clear existing backlogs.
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