South Africa has lifted the moratorium on deportation of the immigrants, prompting People Against Suffering, Oppression and Poverty (Passop) to issue a statement saying it was concerned at the timing of the forced removals.
“The deportation of Zimbabweans resumes at a very sensitive time, with revelations in recent months of abuse of asylum seekers at refugee reception centres compromising their right to apply for refugee status,” the organisation said.
But co-Home Affairs minister Theresa Makone defended her South African counterparts saying they had done what any government in the world would have done.
“I do not have an issue to raise with them yet, I will only do so if the issue escalates,” she said. Makone said South African authorities had assured her that all Zimbabweans who had applied for permits or had sought to regularise their stay in the neighbouring countries would be unaffected by the deportations.
The Home Affairs minister, who was at the Musina border during the interview, said there was no congestion, but they were monitoring the events closely.But Passop said the renewed deportations were in contrast to the Home Affairs’ Director General, Mkuseli Apleni’s statements that deportations would only resume once the documentation project had been completed, appeals reviewed and the minister’s approval for the deportations.Apleni made these statements while addressing a parliamentary portfolio committee on Home Affairs recently.
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Passop charged that the lifting of the moratorium had not been done in a transparent manner, as the Home Affairs ministry was supposed to make a public statement on the failed immigrants.
The NGO said its efforts to get clarity on the number of Zimbabweans in South Africa were being undermined by the deportations. “Despite Passop being reassured by South Africa’s statistician-general, Pali Lehohla, that it will be safe for all immigrants to participate in the census, the department of Home Affairs has taken a seemingly unilateral decision,” Passop said.
The organisation said due to the renewed deportations “fear and paranoia” had crept into the immigrant community, arguing that Zimbabweans would go underground and would be unwilling to take part in South Africa’s national census.
Passop claimed the move would continue “to obscure” the actual number of Zimbabweans living in South Africa.
