DHA responds to PASSOP statement on deportations

The Spokesperson of the Department of Home Affairs, Ronnie Mamoepa, today issued a press statement in response to PASSOP’s press statement yesterday about the lifting of the moratorium on deportation of Zimbabweans. The statement, which is entitled “PASSOP must stop pretending to be spokesperson of Zimbabweans living in South Africa” (see below for full statement), attacks PASSOP and defends the DHA’s right to deport people, but it does not deny any of the claims that we made in our statement yesterday.

The fact that the DHA did not deny any of the claims made in our statement confirms that the DHA has indeed lifted the almost 3-year old moratorium on the deportation of Zimbabweans. We regret that the statement attacks PASSOP, when all we did was shed light on what is going on and raise our concerns about it.

PASSOP does not ‘pretend to be the spokesperson of Zimbabweans living in South Africa’. We don’t ‘pretend’ to be anything. What we are is a human rights organisation whose mission and purpose it is to protect and promote the rights of all refugees, asylum-seekers and immigrants in this country.

We believe that deportation, irrespective of whether the migrant is from Zimbabwe, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda or any other country, is an inhumane and un-African practice. It is our role as a civil society organisation to hold the government to account when we feel that it is falling short in its treatment of this constituency. The secretive manner with which the Department has now moved to lift the moratorium on deportations of Zimbabweans is not acceptable.

Not only is the lack of transparency and lack of consultation disturbing, but it also comes at a sensitive time, both domestically and internationally. Domestically, we feel that it will undermine the efforts of Stats SA to conduct the first full Census in ten years. Internationally, we feel that the situation in Zimbabwe is still unresolved and too fragile to justify deporting people back there.

Let us be clear about this, when we stand against deportations, we are speaking not of criminals, but of hard-working mothers and fathers who have been forced to flee their home countries in order to be able to provide their children with food and safety.

See below for the statement released by the Department of Home Affairs:

MEDIA RELEASE

PASSOP MUST STOP PRETENDING TO BE SPOKESPERSON OF ZIMBABWEANS LIVING IN SOUTH AFRICA

Pretoria – The Department of Home Affairs has noted the statement by PASSOP regarding the deportation of illegal Zimbabwean nationals. It is our belief that PASSOP must stop pretending to be the spokesperson of Zimbabweans living in South Africa.

The majority of Zimbabweans living in South Africa are law-abiding citizens who have done everything in their power to regularise their stay in South Africa by taking advantage of the Zimbabwean documentation project. This they did to comply with South Africa’s immigration laws which are in line with international protocols and conventions governing immigration.

In this regard, these Zimbabweans nationals speak for themselves through the established Home Affairs-Zimbabwe Stakeholder Forum, a mechanism created to regulate interaction between the Department of Home Affairs and representatives of various Zimbabwean organisations including the Zimbabwean Embassy and Consulate based in South Africa.

The mandate of the Department of Home Affairs arising from our national constitution remains the need to manage immigration securely and efficiently within the laws of the Republic.

In this regard, no country in the world will allow illegal immigration within its borders. This is international practice. This however does not detract from the need to protect the rights of refugees and asylum seekers in line with our international obligations.

Accordingly, those Zimbabweans living in South Africa and had applied for the regularisation of their stay through the Zimbabwean Documentation Project have nothing to fear. Nobody who has applied for the regularisation of their stay in South Africa will be subject to deportation as their stay is protected in our rules and regulations.

However, those who did not take advantage of the regularisation project including those who continue to undermine South Africa’s immigration laws by entering the country illegally cannot claim protection of the country’s rules and regulations governing the regularisation of Zimbabweans living in South Africa.

Issued by Ronnie Mamoepa at 082-990-4853

Department of Home Affairs