African unity: Just a dream?

advances and remains a loner.

Now after 13 years in the country he once again faces uncertainty. As a holder of the Zimbabwean Exemption Permit (ZEP), he is unsure what the future holds for him when the special dispensation expires in December. He is one of the nearly 200 000 Zimbabweans who applied when the process was opened in 2009 and has been in this country under its various iterations since then. He has not set foot in the land of his birth since 2008.

Now he and upwards of 180 000 individuals, some of whom have established roots in South Africa, are in limbo until the government clarifies their status. Unlike Robert, others have started families and bought property here. They speak local languages; their cultural references and sense of geography are located here.

To be fair, the Department of Home Affairs was clear from the beginning – there would be a day of reckoning. While the permit does entitle holders to work, study and or conduct business, it does not give them the right to apply for permanent residence, irrespective of the period of stay. As the late former minister of Home Affairs, Professor Hlengiwe Mkhize, said in 2017, “I trust that the ZEP will go a long way in assisting the Zimbabweans to rebuild their lives as they prepare, at work, in business and in educational institutions, for their final return to their sovereign state – Zimbabwe – in the near future.”

It would seem that that future has arrived. But some are crying foul, arguing that in light of their period of stay here in some cases – like Robert, for more than 13 years – they cannot be summarily evicted. When I mentioned this central pillar of their high court application, the vitriol on Twitter and from some callers to my radio show was unsurprising. “They have a country to go back to! There is no war in Zimbabwe, they should go back finish and klaar! Kudlalwa ngathi (they are playing with us!)”

The South African government said at the onset that the attempt to regularise Zimbabweans was motivated by “the wisdom of the finest son of the South African revolution, OR Tambo; we do this in the spirit of international solidarity, conscious of the political imperative to build peace and friendship in the continent and in the whole world”. We have since entered a number of treaties like the African Continental Free Trade Area, which envisages a single market for goods and services, facilitated by movement of persons.

It remains to be seen how the high court will rule in this matter, but one wonders who is really resisting the way of the future – Robert and his compatriots, or the South Africans who want the colonial borders so many of them scorn to stay shut for their fellow Africans.

Bingwa hosts the Breakfast Show on 702 and is a Carte Blanche presenter.