The Department of Home Affairs says it has adequate resources to process special amnesty permits for undocumented Zimbabwean migrants, before the expiry of the special dispensation on 31 December.

In a statement, the Deputy Minister of Home, Mr Malusi Gigaba, said that they had enough resources to deal with the documentation process of Zimbabweans. "We have more than the necessary resources to ensure that the project is completed by its deadline," Gigaba said.

Due to the particularly high volume of applicants at the Johannesburg regional office, Mr Gigaba said the department was reopening an office in Market Street to ease congestion. He said the department also conducted weekly meetings with various Zimbabwean stakeholders to assess the status of the process in an effort to unlock bottlenecks where necessary and to ensure that the 31 December deadline was met.

Home Affairs recently announced amnesty for Zimbabweans who had been using fraudulently acquired South African identity documents, on condition that they hand these in to the department´s regional offices before 31 December.

Some human rights groups had said the deadline should be extended, arguing that department was unable to cope with the large number of applications.