More than 20 000 Zimbabweans who were illegally staying in South Africa have been issued with passports by their embassy since the beginning of the ongoing documentation exercise in the country.

Zimbabwe’s consul-general, Mr Chris Mapanga, told the Zoutpansberger that they had since dispatched three teams from their passport office to Pretoria, Johannesburg and Cape Town. “We are working flat out, so that we are able to meet the 31 December deadline set by the South African Home Affairs department. So far, we have managed to issue slightly more than 20 000 passports to our people since the process started on 20 September,” he said.

Mapanga said they would soon open more processing centres in Limpopo and other provinces in this country.

The move to register all Zimbabweans living in this country was a dispensation that was agreed upon between South Africa and Zimbabwe in April 2009. The South African government recently announced that it would resume deporting undocumented Zimbabweans, ending an 18-month moratorium on deportations of illegal immigrants. South Africa is planning to deport undocumented Zimbabweans from December 31.

In an effort to ensure that Zimbabweans living in the country regularise their stay ahead of the expiry of the special dispensation on December 31, South Africa has also established a call centre to help Zimbabweans living in the country get their documentation in order.

According to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), it is believed that there are over three million Zimbabweans living, working, studying and engaging in business and entrepreneurial activities in South Africa and that only a third are documented.

Mr Mapanga said Zimbabweans already working, engaged in business or studying in South Africa would be issued with relevant permits on condition that they produced valid documents to show they were bona fide citizens of Zimbabwe before expiry of the deadline. South Africa has also committed to extending amnesty to all those who possessed fraudulent identity documents, on condition that they handed them back to Home Affairs regional offices before 31 December.