No scrapping of visa's yet: SA government official says
30 November 2006
By Lance Guma (SW Radio Africa)
State media reports suggesting the South African government had agreed
to waive visa restrictions on Zimbabweans wishing to enter the country
have been dismissed as untrue. Jacky Mashapa the acting head of
communications in the South African Home Affairs department told the
Business Day newspaper such a decision had not been made yet. Mashapu,
‘denied that a decision to waive visa requirements for Zimbabweans was
made last week at a meeting of the Zimbabwe-SA joint permanent
commission on defence and security,’ the paper said.
The Zimbabwe government wants the visas scrapped and has already made a
formal request, which the South Africans say they are looking into. But
as yet no decision has been made. Several media agencies picked up on
the story and this raised hopes amongst many desperate Zimbabweans that
they could finally escape grinding poverty in their homeland by
crossing the border legally as opposed to what thousands do every year,
crossing illegally and at great risk in the crocodile infested Limpopo
River.
The Herald reported that South Africa had temporarily scrapped
‘stringent’ visa requirements but Mashapu told Business Day that the
issue would be discussed at a meeting to be held next year. ‘The home
affairs ministers of South Africa and Zimbabwe will continue to
interact on unresolved issues around visa requirements until an
agreement is reached on the matter,” he told the paper.
Daniel Molokela who coordinates the activities of Zimbabwean civic
society groups based in South Africa says the visa issue was ‘neither
here nor there.’ He says they are millions of Zimbabweans who have
entered that country illegally and whether visas where scrapped or not,
would not affect the trend. Molokela dismissed assertions the scrapping
of visas would lead to a flood of Zimbabweans into South Africa saying
there would be an initial flurry of people travelling but that the
numbers would quickly go down. He says life in that country is not as
easy as people make it out to be. Molokela argued it would help the
fight against crime if South Africa made it easy for illegally based
Zimbabweans to formalise their status.-SW Radio Africa
Want to debate this article and make your views known?
Then join fellow Zimbabweans in our forums. CLICK HERE
ABOUT US
