VZCZCXRO2834
RR RUEHDU RUEHJO
DE RUEHSA #0770/01 1071507
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 171507Z APR 09
FM AMEMBASSY PRETORIA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 8151
INFO RUEHUJA/AMEMBASSY ABUJA 1322
RUEHOR/AMEMBASSY GABORONE 5467
RUEHSB/AMEMBASSY HARARE 3830
RUEHLS/AMEMBASSY LUSAKA 3775
RUEHTO/AMEMBASSY MAPUTO 6063
RUEHTN/AMCONSUL CAPE TOWN 6750
RUEHDU/AMCONSUL DURBAN 0866
RUEHJO/AMCONSUL JOHANNESBURG 9097

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 
 
------- 
Summary 
------- 
 
¶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. 
 
------------------------------ 
Permit Hailed by Rights Groups 
------------------------------ 
 
¶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. 
 
----------------------- 
A Better Fit vs. Asylum 
----------------------- 
 
¶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. 
 
------------------- 
End to Deportations 
------------------- 
 
¶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. 
 
------------------------- 
Six Months, but Renewable 
------------------------- 
 
¶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. 
 
------------------------------- 
A Snap Decision? DHA Scrambling 
------------------------------- 
 
¶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." 
 
--------------------------- 
Sketchy Details on Roll-Out 
--------------------------- 
 
¶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. 
 
------------------------------ 
Political Inferences: Why Now? 
------------------------------ 
 
¶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