Interiors are calling for a blockade to protect ZEP owners
The Supreme Court of Appeals will hear the Home Office’s appeal on Tuesday against blocking ZEP owners. The blockade was confirmed in an incident filed in June 2023 by the Zimbabwean Immigration Federation (ZIF). The Interiors argues that the ZEP system is intended to be temporary at all times and that the Minister can decide to end it. However, ZIF says that ending ZEP will cause irreparable harm to hundreds of thousands.
The legitimate narrative surrounding Zimbabwe’s exemption permit (ZEP) will return to court on Tuesday to hear the Home Office’s appeal against a ruling that the Appeals Office (SCA) temporarily protected against arrests and deportation.
The interim block, granted in a lawsuit filed by the Zimbabwe Federation of Immigrants (ZIF) in June 2023, protected all ZEP holders (approximately 178,000), although the legality of termination of the permit system was challenged.
The effectiveness of ZEP was extended to November 2025 last year.
The Home Office has called on the SCA to put aside the interim relief granted to ZIF, effectively regaining the department’s ability to enforce immigration laws against ZEP holders until broader legal questions regarding permits are resolved.
Court documents argue that the Ministry of Home Affairs should be viewed as denial as there is already another High Court ruling in a case filed by the Helen Suzman Foundation that declared the Minister’s decision to illegally terminate the ZEP system and put it aside. The department is also suing the verdict.
According to the department, the permit was always temporary and intended to be subject to the Minister’s discretion. It argues that requiring the minister to maintain Zeps until Zimbabwe’s economic situation improves would be an indefinite obligation not supported by the law.
In response, ZIF argues that the department’s appeals have not taken into consideration the serious human consequences of terminating the ZEP system. These results lie at the heart of constitutional rights and cannot simply be put aside.
ZIF claims that “it is likely that Zep holders will be deported to prevent such deportation,” and that “there is a family breakup in violation of the right to life and dignity of their families.”
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They argue that even without deportation, the sudden transition from legal residence to undocumented status strips allows basic protections. It puts access to work, education, and family stability at risk, and opens people to the daily threat of arrest, harassment or detention.
Zep holders face irreversible harm, Zif argues. Despite living, working and building South African families and businesses for over a decade, many people did not qualify for other visas.
These are not hypothetical concerns, they say. When the ZEP system first ended, thousands of people left scrambling to apply for exemptions. That uncertainty continues to this day and remains a real and continuous threat to livelihood, security and dignity.
They argue that the department relies on technical arguments to justify ignoring these effects, but that it is not an excuse for the sudden and harmful way in which the policy has ended or the lack of meaningful alternatives for those affected.
ZIF also rejects the department’s claim that the Zep owner may have been able to apply for another visa rather than relying on court protection. They argue that these alternatives are unavailable, unrealistic, or too late.
They argue that the ZEP scheme was created accurately as most permit holders were not eligible for mainstream visas and the department granted it in their own court applications.
