SOUTH AFRICA ANNOUNCES PERMIT FOR ZIMBABWEANS

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 PRETORIA 000770

SIPDIS
SENSITIVE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL PHUM PREF PGOV SA
SUBJECT: SOUTH AFRICA ANNOUNCES PERMIT FOR ZIMBABWEANS

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Summary
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1. The SAG's April 3 announcement of a temporary permit for
Zimbabweans to remain in South Africa is a potentially
groundbreaking step in assistance to the continuing mass
influx of Zimbabwean migrants. Compared to the asylum
channel, the permit is much better suited to Zimbabweans'
mainly economic motivations for migration and desire to
travel home. All Zimbabweans will be eligible, and
deportations will cease. Three weeks before elections, the
announcement appears to be a snap decision by the outgoing
Minister, catching her Department of Home Affairs off guard
on implementation. There are currently more questions than
answers regarding the rollout (septel),which will be in the
hands of a new incoming administration. End Summary.

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Permit Hailed by Rights Groups
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2. The Department of Home Affairs (DHA)'s April 3
announcement of a temporary permit for Zimbabweans to remain
in South Africa is potentially a very significant step
forward in alleviating the pressure of a continuing mass
influx of migrants. The move has long been advocated by a
spectrum of international organizations and advocacy groups,
including UNHCR, IOM, Human Rights Watch, and local NGO
coalition the Consortium for Refugees and Migrants in South
Africa (CORMSA); and it has been enthusiastically welcomed by
the international and local rights community. Even the
Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) has joined
the chorus of approving comments.

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A Better Fit vs. Asylum
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3. Compared to the asylum-seeking channel which was
previously the sole option for most migrants, the permit is a
much more suitable instrument to regularize Zimbabweans'
stay. All Zimbabweans are eligible, without a need to
document fear of persecution on which asylum is based. No
Zimbabwean may be denied, compared with a 90 percent refusal
rate on Zimbabwean asylum applications which reach the
adjudication stage. This very basic criterion should speed
processing, unclogging the overburdened DHA centers to the
benefit of real refugees. The permit will also allow travel
to and from Zimbabwe, which has long been a detention /
deportation snag for holders of asylum permits. While not
barring parallel asylum applications by those with genuine
fears of persecution, the permit in effect acknowledges that
the vast majority of Zimbabweans in South Africa are merely
seeking work and food to send back to their families at home.

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End to Deportations
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4. Just as important as the new permit is the concurrent
stay of deportations of Zimbabweans. Police encountering
undocumented Zimbabweans will be henceforth instructed to
transport them to DHA centers to obtain permits. This is a
major reversal of a cat-and-mouse practice which DHA itself
has long decried as expensive and ineffective, and which
moreover is a lead source of petty corruption among
immigration officials and police. More than 39,000
Zimbabweans were deported in 2008, according to Home Affairs,
and most quickly round-tripped to South Africa across porous
borders, in what an IOM officer refers to as a cyclical
"carousel." Some Zimbabweans have simply used deportation
transport as a free taxi service to visit home.
Qtransport as a free taxi service to visit home.

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Six Months, but Renewable
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5. This new permit regime is explicitly "temporary," but it
is also renewable at the SAG's discretion. It has been
initially announced for a six-month duration (dating from the
first issuance, i.e. a future date not yet determined),but
that period is expected to be extended. Renewals will be
national and program-wide, not on a case-by-case basis of

PRETORIA 00000770 002 OF 002


individual permit holders, hence not necessitating recurrent
rounds of processing with each program extension. The intent
is that the program be suspended only when the SAG determines
that conditions inside Zimbabwe have sufficiently improved
and normalized for large numbers of migrants to return.

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A Snap Decision? DHA Scrambling
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6. (SBU) The permit idea has been under discussion for some
time, but the Minister's go-ahead seems to have been sudden,
catching even Home Affairs officials off guard. Under the
Mbeki administration, DHA lobbied for the permit to relieve
operational backlogs, against resistance from a political
leadership loathe to highlight Zimbabwe's exodus while
conducting "quiet diplomacy" there. Last fall DHA privately
told UNHCR the permit was imminent; but a few days later the
idea was squelched during a meeting at the Presidency. When
on April 3 poloff heard the news in a morning BBC bulletin
and relayed it to our IO/NGO interlocutors, none had been
forewarned. In an April 7 meeting with DHA Deputy Director
General Jackie McKay, his aide's mention of memos drafted at
the weekend hinted they were in catch-up mode still ironing
out details. Asked about the duration of the permit policy,
they slipped, "It's announced for six months...No, the
Minister signed for 12 months... No, that's not meant to be
public yet."

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Sketchy Details on Roll-Out
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7. DHA's McKay was able to supply some early details of the
permit's implementation. The permit will be an identity
card, credit-card sized, with security features. (A visa
foil is a nonstarter, since most migrants lack passports or
other documents in which to attach a visa.) Procurement of
card stock and programming of system software is expected to
delay rollout for at least two months, during which the SAG
may issue an interim document on security paper. McKay is
highly concerned about fraud (e.g. by non-Zimbabwean
migrants),however, and hence is wary of rushing the process.



8. Rollout is planned via mobile trailer units (as used now
at the border in Musina) in all provinces, for a four-month
surge to document all comers. Thereafter processing would
revert to regular DHA centers, after the bulk of cases had
been handled during the surge. Like asylum seekers' permits,
the Zimbabwean permit will allow for stay, employment,
education, and medical care, but not for broader social
services like housing or welfare grants. The permit is
issued per provision 31(2)b of the Immigration Act
authorizing the Minister to define exceptional groups for
temporary stay.

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Political Inferences: Why Now?
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9. COMMENT: The announcement's timing, three weeks before
national elections, is a mystery that invites speculation
into the SAG's motives. The rights community never expected
such a move before elections, since support to migrants is
not a way to win votes in townships. One theory is that the
establishment of an interim Motlanthe administration in South
Africa and a unity government in Zimbabwe removed previous
political blockages, enabling DHA's outgoing Minister to
launch the permit regime as a last-minute legacy to her
successor. Another view suggests that media coverage of
Qsuccessor. Another view suggests that media coverage of
throngs of Zimbabwean migrants in downtown Johannesburg may
have pressured the governing ANC to take some kind of action,
to show itself more proactive on Zimbabwe than its Mbeki-ite
challengers of the COPE party -- albeit with an emphasis on
six-month "temporary" action so as not to incite xenophobic
resentment. Whatever the motive, a new administration in May
will inherit the policy, to own or disown, and to implement
or terminate as best suits its own interests. End Comment.

LA LIME