The High Court in Pretoria has reserved judgment in the Department of Home Affairs’ application for leave to appeal an earlier ruling on the Zimbabwean Exemption Permit (ZEP). The application was heard on Monday, and the court will hand down its decision after the recess.
The Department of Home Affairs is seeking to challenge the court’s findings that the termination of the ZEP regime by the government is unlawful. In June, a full bench of the high court criticized the department and its minister, Aaron Motsoaledi, for not following proper procedure in terminating the regime.
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The ZEP regime allows more than 178,000 Zimbabweans to stay and work in South Africa. The termination of the regime has raised concerns among the Zimbabwean community in South Africa, as it could potentially lead to their deportation.
The Helen Suzman Foundation challenged Motsoaledi’s decision to terminate the ZEPs in April. In a ruling, the court stated, ‘Pending the judgment of this court in the main application under Part B, the respondents are interdicted and restrained from arresting, issuing an order for deportation, or detaining any holder of the Zimbabwe Exemption Permit for the purposes of deportation in terms of section 34 of the Immigration Act 13 of 2002 for any reason related to him or her not having any valid exemption certificate in his or her passport.’
This ruling also prevents the Department of Home Affairs from denying entry or departure into or from South Africa. As a result, the grace period for the ZEPs has been extended to the end of December.
The judgment in this case will have significant implications for the Zimbabwean community in South Africa. If the court upholds the earlier ruling that the termination of the ZEP regime is unlawful, it would provide relief to thousands of Zimbabweans who are currently living and working in South Africa.
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Judge Colleen Collis, who presided over the case, announced that the judgment would be handed down after the recess. She stated, ‘We are going to reserve our judgment on those two applications for leave to appeal, and then we will hand it down as soon as it is ready. Parties must bear in mind that the court is now on recess, so we accommodated the hearing of this application because you had set through the request during term already, but we will only hand down the judgment once the new term commences. We will advise the parties, and it will be uploaded into case lines.’