Minister of Home Affairs Leon Schreiber has issued a new technical directive that should speed up the processing of work permit applications by holders of Zimbabwe Exemption Permits (ZEP).
In 2022, former minister of home affairs Aaron Motsoaledi instituted a waiver for holders of valid ZEP permits to submit applications for mainstream work visas without obtaining certificates from the Department of Labour and the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA). This was intended to speed up the transition away from the ZEP.
Schreiber said that it subsequently emerged that the waiver of the SAQA certificate was excluded from the letters that were sent to ZEP holders.
“This defeated the purpose of the waiver, as it created a bottleneck with home affairs officials unsure of how to process the applications. A legal opinion further confirmed that this oversight needed to be corrected through a technical amendment issued via a circular,” he said.
The amendment was published on Wednesday. Schreiber hopes to speed up the process of migrating away from the ZEP towards mainstream work visas for applicants who contribute to the economy and qualify in terms of the law.
The waiver only enables ZEP holders to submit applications more speedily and does not influence the subsequent outcome of any application. All relevant criteria must still be met for a specific application to be successful.
According to a reply to a parliamentary question in April, former home affairs minister Aaron Motsoaledi revealed that the visa backlog stood at 90 000 as of February 2024.
[Photo: X/@LeonSchreiber]