ZEPs Expiring: Unite against state-sanctioned xenophobia, build a united struggle for permanent residency

On 25 November, the Department of Home Affairs announced that the Zimbabwean Exemption Permit (ZEP) will not be extended. Unless we organise, fight and defeat this attack on migrant workers as well as on the working class as a whole, the consequences will be dramatic: from 31 December 2021 the permits for nearly 200 000 Zimbabwean migrants will expire, and they will have a twelve months “grace period” to navigate the bureaucratic labyrinth for other permits or visas. If unsuccessful – as most are likely to be given the near-impossible requirements – they will be required to leave South Africa. 

This decision constitutes a warrant of mass deportation of ZEP holders. This is clearly demonstrated by the fact that a majority if not all ZEP holders will not be able to obtain any other form of work permit, leaving them undocumented. The decision has also exacerbated an existing humanitarian crisis and places ZEP holders and their families right at the centre.

Nowhere to feel safe for migrant workers

Predictably the decision brings socio-economic devastation for those affected. It is important to note that the overwhelming majority of ZEP holders belong to the working class and carry out both formal and informal work in the country. The most immediate consequences have seen opportunistic employers retrenching and dismissing workers on the basis of this decision. Banks are also disregarding the so-called ‘grace’ period and have begun turning away ZEP holders, while schools have turned away permit holders in spite of the fact that it is unconstitutional to deny undocumented children their right to basic education.  

Zimbabweans in South Africa face tremendous challenges that also affect their mental and physical health. The fact that ZEP holders never meet requirements needed to become permanent residents leaves them living in unrelenting uncertainty. These high levels of insecurity also lead to high levels of stress. Recently, a Zimbabwean domestic worker died after suffering heart failure whilst living in fear of deportation. Everyone, regardless of nationality, deserves decent jobs, free and quality education, their basic needs met, and the security of knowing they will not be violently removed from their homes and communities through deportation.

Zimbabweans have formed part of South Africa’s migrant labour system since its onset, just as the struggle against apartheid involved the whole of Southern Africa. It is estimated that five million Zimbabweans live outside of Zimbabwe; about one million of those reside in South Africa. With the economic collapse (to which SA big business contributed) and increasing repression in the early 2000s, many Zimbabweans migrated to South Africa as economic and political refugees.

The ZANU PF regime in Zimbabwe has been in power since independence in 1980 and has ruled with an iron fist. Many people in Zimbabwe live in fear of the brutal measures ZANU PF employs against any opposition to its regime, while also facing deteriorating living conditions and abject poverty. Since independence, the ZANU PF regime has failed dismally to carry through the fundamental changes needed to uplift the lives of ordinary people – hunger and suffering is widespread across the country and it is difficult for most people to make a living. This is despite the fact that the country has large reserves of minerals and natural resources along with a young and energetic workforce. For those fortunate to have jobs at all, working conditions are generally poor and wages are extremely low. Before and at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic Zimbabwe’s health workers were the first to expose the ZANU PF regime’s lack of preparation and the poor state of the healthcare system as well as the poor working conditions under which they work. They were met with the usual repression and this has triggered a mass exodus of health workers leaving the whole healthcare system in tatters in the midst of a devastating pandemic.

The looting and plunder of Zimbabwe’s resources is best explained by the fact that every month an estimated US$100 million (R1.6 billion) worth of gold is smuggled out of Zimbabwe by criminals directly connected to the Harare regime. 

The ZEP decision is also taken against the backdrop of a deepening economic crisis in Zimbabwe. Inflation is out of control and the parasitic cartels and cronies are increasing their wealth through profiteering from the inability of the Zimbabwean state to provide basic services such as healthcare and other basic needs for survival. The ZANU PF regime has also carried out a relentless war against the rural communities in Zimbabwe, often undertaking colonial style evictions of thousands in order to accommodate big business interests and Chinese mining companies. 

The origin of the ZEP

The decision to provide Zimbabweans with a special permit – called the Dispensation for Zimbabwe Project (DZP) – was taken in 2009 after a period of the mass influx of Zimbabweans at the height of the political crisis in Zimbabwe. It is important to highlight the role played by the ANC government in exacerbating this crisis which continues to this very day. After the decisive electoral defeat of the ZANU PF regime, the ANC intervened to rescue the Mugabe regime and to ultimately guarantee its survival beyond the decisive rejection at the polls by the masses of Zimbabwe. With its manoeuvring, the ANC feared that the defeat of ZANU PF, which it sees as a fraternal ‘liberation movement,’ will ultimately have a domino effect and also lead to the ANC’s demise in South Africa. Fast forward to 2021, the ANC government, facing political irrelevance and impending electoral defeats, is cowering to xenophobic reaction by seeking to deport tens of thousands of previously documented migrants.   

The DZP provided some relief to successful applicants but rapidly began to diminish the rights and access to the formal economy of some (if not most) of its holders. Subsequently, the state introduced the Zimbabwe Special Dispensation Permit (ZSP) which in turn expired after four years. Yet another temporary measure was then introduced in the form of the Zimbabwe Exemption Permit (ZEP). We see here a textbook example of both the ruling class’s preference for quick fixes instead of addressing issues directly, and of how it quite consciously sets the most vulnerable sections of the working class up for never-ending insecurity.

Among the beneficiaries of the ZEP were also tens of thousands of asylum seekers who had unsuccessfully attempted to obtain asylum. This is important considering the backlog of asylum seeker applications that remain unprocessed by the Department of Home Affairs for years, often numbering in the hundreds of thousands. From the applicants also emerged post-1994 refugees of the Gukurahundi massacres in Zimbabwe, who had obtained their documentation unlawfully as there was no means through which they could be lawfully documented under apartheid. The ZEP was the primary reason the ANC government could grant amnesty for these applicants otherwise they would have continued with their undocumented status after having lived in South Africa for an entire generation. 

State-sanctioned xenophobia

Both the South African and Zimbabwean regimes have failed to produce solutions to the crisis facing the working class in their countries. On the basis of capitalism, neither has overcome the legacies of apartheid and colonisation. Decades of economic decline have pushed the masses further into desperation. It is no surprise that both states also use the people’s desperation to score political points.

As stated above, the ANC is in a weak position after suffering significant losses in the most recent local elections, but also because the system it represents, capitalism, is entangled in decline and crises on all fronts – the economy, the health disaster of the pandemic, political credibility, the climate catastrophe and other multiple crises generated by the system. They are fundamentally unable to address the burning issue of skyrocketing unemployment which directly affects almost half of the country. This is because of their role as managers of the capitalist system, in which work isn’t about fulfilling human needs, but about sweating out profits for the tiny billionaire minority – a system which is built on continued neo-colonial plunder and the destruction of our climate and ecosystems, and which has nothing but austerity, intensified exploitation and oppression to offer the majority.

Instead of addressing the crisis directly by, for a start, investing in a mass public works programme that would create well-paid, sustainable jobs, the ruling party continues its drift towards right wing Trumpian politics by attacking migrant workers. It is disturbingly clear that the ANC is hoping to use this moment to canvas for future voters and undermine the working class unity and struggles that will be pushed forwards in the stormy period ahead. It is mirroring the shallow anti-immigrant stances of European and American governments, trying to whip up xenophobia to shift the blame of the crisis we are facing from those responsible – the big corporations and their allies in government – onto some of the most oppressed and exploited people in society. 

Demand permanent residency to end insecurity

The refusal to secure permanent residency for 200 000 people is a clear attack on the working class as a whole. Although most people facing deportation have resided in the country for more than a decade, the state continues to deny their contributions to the economy of the country. This must signal a warning to the entire working class that the ANC is determined to play political poker using the lives of working class people as bargaining chips for its political survival.

To end this cycle of temporary ‘relief’ followed by periods of increased insecurity, we have to boldly demand an end to these temporary permits. Immediate permanent residency must be granted to all migrant workers and their families who have made a life in South Africa. Furthermore, permanent residency must be granted under the same conditions as those for the ZEP so that it can be inclusive of workers and the poor. As acknowledged by the Minister of Home Affairs Aaron Motsoaledi himself, only the rich migrants have benefited and exploited the rampant corruption at Home Affairs to obtain permanent residency. Working class and poor migrants who constitute the overwhelming majority of ZEP holders should not be excluded on the basis of their income or any of the complicated and costly requirements that often come with the application process. The transition from ZEPs to permanent residency should also be automatic for ZEP holders who have many times over fulfilled the bureaucratic requirements to reside in South Africa. 

We argue for permanent residency as a demand because a mere renewal of the ZEPs means that it will still be left up to the anti-working class government to determine the fate of ZEP holders. The state has shown multiple times that they are unwilling to end this stressful situation for migrant workers, and instead will stoke the flames of xenophobia whenever the ‘legal’ status of these workers arise. But we should be under no illusions that this will be an easy fight – building a mass campaign that is democratically organised and led by the working class is critical in forging the struggle needed to win such bold demands.

An injury to one is an injury to all

The struggles that Zimbabweans working in South Africa face is a working class struggle. The system that forces Zimbabweans to flee their home country and face insecurity here and elsewhere is the same system that oppresses workers in South Africa. Capitalism is a system that functions through exploiting workers and natural resources for profit. Instead of workers democratically organising and planning production to meet the needs of the vast majority of society, the ruling elites work together to drive down wages and maximise profits for the bosses’ class. 

The expiration of the ZEPs means that many Zimbabweans with nowhere to turn will be driven underground and forced to work “illegally”. This in turn will mean the acceptance of lower wages and worse working conditions. Many South African employers opt to employ undocumented migrants so that they can exploit and coerce them even more intensively. By declaring hundreds of thousands of workers essentially “illegal” in South Africa, the ANC government is consciously undermining the hard won labour rights for all workers as wages and working conditions will deteriorate for everyone in such a scenario.

This state divide-and-rule will be accompanied by escalated xenophobic instigation. Claims will be made of “putting South Africans first” for jobs, houses etc – nothing could be further from the truth. The working class is one and weakening one section of it weakens us all. The attack on Zimbabwean workers will be followed by others – for example on migrants from Lesotho and Angola, but also raise hostility between working class people from different provinces and/or language groups within the borders. South African workers must not concede a millimetre to this division – the answer is instead to fight together against racism and xenophobia, for equal pay for equal work, living wages, decent working conditions, housing, health care, education and services for ALL.  In the end it must be a fight to overthrow capitalism and replace it with a fully democratic, socialist society in which all who work benefit from it.

It is therefore crucial that progressive working class formations, especially SAFTU, lead the charge of standing in solidarity with Zimbabweans facing deportation or being forced underground. This should not be difficult as ZEP holders are also union members and shop stewards who participate actively in their own unions. It has also been widely established that the documentation of migrant workers encourages them to join other workers to fight against exploitation by their employers.

The working class alone holds the power to change society for the better, and so workers and communities can organise solidarity actions like pickets, protests and even strikes to pressure the ANC government to put an end to this dehumanizing limbo that migrants in South Africa face. On the basis of such uncompromising, international working class solidarity, we can fight not only for better working conditions in South Africa, but a socialist world free from oppression and exploitation.

We say

• No more temporary measures: permanent residency for all current ZEP holders and Zimbabwean migrants who have made a life in South Africa.
• No to retrenchments or job losses! Build workplace committees to defend against any migrant workers losing their jobs due to the expiration of permits.
• No to theft of ZEP holders money by the banks.
• Fight together for a living wage of R12 500 across all sectors for all workers.
• Common struggle against racism, the scapegoating of refugees and widening divisions.
• No school exclusions – learners, caregivers, teachers should organise and defend every learner’s right to continue schooling, regardless of immigration status.
• No deportations or refugee prisons!
• Organised labour must stand in solidarity with Zimbabwean workers, organise them into unions, and defend their right to live and work in South Africa.
• Jobs, housing, and welfare for all — free the resources for this by nationalising big business and the banks under democratic working class control and management.
• Build the Zimbabwean Solidarity Network (ZSN) into a vehicle of struggle to fight for the rights of all working class migrants in South Africa.
• Defend the right to asylum – permanent residence for those who are forced to flee persecution, oppression and war.
• Join in international solidarity with the struggles of migrants across the world facing the same oppressive circumstances under the imperialist, capitalist system – tear down the walls of the US, Fortress Europe etc.
• SAFTU must lead the way in building a mass workers party as a real opposition to the ruling parties. Under its banner the working class can unite across nationalities, race, gender, etc. and democratically organise the struggle for a socialist federation of Southern Africa.
• Support the building of mass movement that can unite the working masses and poor in a struggle to overthrow the ZANU-PF regime, capitalism and imperialism and free Zimbabwe from all oppression, exploitation and corruption.
• For a democratic and socialist Zimbabwe, and a socialist South Africa, in a voluntary democratic and socialist federation of Southern Africa.
• Global struggle against the plunder and divide-and-rule of capitalism and imperialism — for a socialist world of freedom and equality.