South Africa: Last Minute Reprieve for Zimbabwe Exemption Permit Holders

The Minister of Home Affairs has extended the ZEP to 28 November 2025

Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber extended the validity of the original Zimbabwe Exemption Permit (ZEP) to 28 November 2025.
The validity of the original ZEP was meant to end on Friday, 29 November 2024.
This caused panic among thousands of people trying to remain legally in the country who, frustrated by long queues and challenges with the appointment booking system, have been struggling to meet the deadline.
Schreiber stated that during this extension period holders of ZEPs may not be arrested or deported.
Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber has stepped in at the eleventh hour on Friday morning to extend the validity of the Zimbabwe Exemption Permit (ZEP).

This comes as the ZEP was meant to expire on Friday, causing panic among thousands of people trying to remain legally in the country.

In the government gazette on 29 November, Schreiber said that the Zimbabwean Exemption Permit would remain valid until 28 November 2025 “in order for me to fulfill the duty placed on me by the Gauteng High Court to consult the affected ZEP holders and all other stakeholders on the future of the current dispensation”.

He was referring to a court ruling, previously reported by GroundUp.

Schreiber stated that the Immigration Advisory Board would once again be activated to advise the department on ways to comply with the High Court order on the future of the ZEP.

He further stated that “no holder of a ZEP may be arrested, ordered to depart or be detained for deportation or deported in terms of section 34 of the Immigration Act for any reason related to him or her not having any valid exemption certificate”.

Holders of an exemption certificate will be allowed to travel in and out of the country, “provided that he or she complies with all other requirements for entry into and departure, save for the reason of not having a valid visa endorsed in his or her passport”.

By Allafrica