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ZEF press statement on the monitoring of the Zimbabwe Documentation Project
Zimbabwe Exiles Forum (ZEF)
January 24, 2012

Executive Summary

1. Late release of permits for October 2010 and November 2010.
2. Rampant corruption.
3. Lack of front office personnel.
4. No clear cut answers to queries.
5. Applicants losing employment due to lack of permits when they had applied.
6. No clear cut off dates for ending the project and no responses are forthcoming from the Department of Home Affairs

Observations

ZEF has been monitoring the permit situation at TIRRO Home Affairs since inception to check on progress being made. As part of the Stakeholders Forum ZEF has an obligation to monitor the ZDP process to its constituents. ZEF has been monitoring at this office in particular because it is in Pretoria where the organization is based. ZEF has also been receiving queries from other centres from clients through phone calls, e-mails and walk ins. When we started going to TIRRO only two or three out of about one hundred permits were being issued per day. As of January 2012 there was an increase in the number of permits being issued to about sixty per day. This is a commendable sign of progress on the part of the Department of Home Affairs.

ZEF has noted with concern though that there are now issues that do not leave the whole exercise in not so bright a light. Applicants who applied in October and early November 2010 have not been receiving their permits whereas those who applied as late as December 31st 2010 are receiving theirs. The centre manager at TIRRO has not been able to shed light on this. All queries are being referred to head office but head office neither responds or acknowledges receipt of the queries from our offices and individuals. ZEF has had to deal with the following questions at regular intervals.

• "My permit expired after four months, I have tried to have it extended to no avail, please help me. I have now lost my job as well."
  
• "My child's permit has been issued but I have not received mine, why?"
  
• "I would like to travel overseas with my employee and she has had a visa issued by the consulate of the country we intend to visit, it can only be released subject to her having a valid work permit, what can I do?"
  
• "I have a new passport after my old one expired, can I have my permit changed to reflect this information and have the permit transferred to the new passport?"
  
• "I got an SMS in February 2011 informing me that my permit was out but I have not received it, why and when am I going to have it?"
  
• "My permit is said to be not in the system, why?"
  
• "My permit had wrong details on it and I want them rectified but I am being told to come back after three weeks always, for how long am I going to do this before my issue is resolved?"

Before clients come to us with the above queries they would have tried to access the home affairs for help to no avail. Answers to these many questions are only two. An applicant is either told that their application is pending and/or query is still with Head Office a year after applying and having received an SMS as early as February 2011 for collection. As people are sitting waiting to collect their permits the rumor mill is rife, there is popular belief among waiting applicants that if a person's permit can not be located then that permit is likely to have been sold to someone who did not apply in the first place. There have also been reports of people being caught at ports of entry with permits that do not belong to them. This is disturbing, who then do those permits belong to if not the passport holder? These people are then told to go back to the office of application and sort out their permit issue. Two of ZEF's clients who travel frequently have spoken of the difficulty that they are having with their permits as they are always told that the serial numbers of their permits have not yet been processed by the DHA. This learns credence to the saying of the rumor mill.

On the 12th of January 2012, ZEF's monitoring agent went to TIRRO to check on her permit. She was overjoyed to finally get it but was not entirely too happy by some of the happenings that she observed. There was a clear solicitation for bribes from some of the TIRRO officers. When she asked one gentleman who was asked to pay a bribe why he was being asked to do so he told her, it was because he had overstayed. ZEF's understanding is that there was a blanket amnesty on such issues with overstaying included. The gentleman paid R150 to get his permit stuck in his passport. He was told it's either he 'makes a plan' and get his permit there and then or he goes to an exit port and pay R3 000, the choice was his. He chose to 'make a plan'. The people involved in this were two ladies and a gentleman. They were manning booth number 6 on this particular day.

Over the course of the documentation process, applicants have been losing their jobs because they have not been able to produce valid work permits as requested by employers. ZEF believes this has tarnished an otherwise brilliant initiative by the South African government. ZEF therefore recommends the following;

• The DHA should have a front desk because the officers issuing permits are unwilling to help and it clear they do not have adequate answers.
  
• A stakeholder's forum is urgently needed since phone calls and e-mails are going for months without being responded to.
  
• There are reports and observations of corruption which the DHA needs to urgently look into this.
  
• There is a need for DHA, if it can not meet with stakeholders in the forum to at least uncap for stakeholders the process of permit application, processing and issuing that way at least there will be a better understanding of the process and clients' queries are adequately answered.
  
• There is a need for every staff member at home affairs to own up and at least try to understand their own internal mechanisms instead of them hiding under the banner of Head Office.
  
• The behavior of front officers is a direct reflection of their superiors and ZEF believes therefore that these superiors should ensure that their front line officers perform to the best of their abilities.
  
• ZEF understands that this initiative is new, a lot of glitches were expected and experienced but ZEF believe by continued engagement this initiative can be a success.
  
• We also believe a time frame is needed if a person has queries for that person to have his/her query resolved because applicants are being told week in week out to come back after three weeks on a continuous basis. Applicants now have little faith in this initiative.
  
• Some front officers believe if an applicant asks too many questions that applicant shall not be tolerated as his/her purpose is just to disrupt the process. Front officers should be cognizant of the frustration that applicants are going through week in week out without an end in sight. Most applicants are missing many hours of work every week as a result of this yet the officers do not seem to appreciate that fact.
  
• If an applicant is told to come back after three weeks then it should be put in writing and the query should be solved after the aforesaid three weeks.
  
• A time frame that categorically states when the exercise shall be complete and the time for dealing with queries is needed.
  
• There seem to be lack of checks and balances in the Department of Home Affairs and these need to be put in place otherwise if someone tempers with the system no remedy can be found and quickly.

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