BOAF – 10,000 Points of Light (POL) salutes Dr Motsoaledi for promoting, upholding and protecting the territorial integrity and sovereignty of SA

The truth hurts. SA is not a province of Zimbabwe yet those who want to be integrated into this nation-state through the ZEP discretionary assimilation innovation introduced to permit the beneficiaries to live and work in SA have failed, refused and neglected to use this bridge to regularize their stay.

If after 7 years of tolerance and grace, the issue of the 180k persons on this dispensation remains problematic, one must know the futility of dialogue and engagement whether using courts or outside the courts when the true nature of the problem statement is crystally clear that the majority of the beneficiaries erroneously believe that acquired a legally assertable right.

There is no legal authority that exists to permit this self-serving notion that a deferred deportation can mutate into a legitimate legal status

What is at stake here? The charitable dispensation was granted prior to Dr. Motsoaledi’s appointment as Minister of Home Affairs.

The fact that he inherited the problem is not in dispute.

The fact that this extended expiry has occurred under his watch is also not in dispute.

The problem regarding this class of persons and their relationship to SA was known prior to the introduction of the dispensation.

Instead of scapegoating Dr Motsoaledi, one would have thought that the affected persons would have known and actor in a responsible and responsive manner by organizing themselves to present a cogent and reasoned basis supporting a disguised request for the Minister to grant a general waiver at a time when SA is facing its own job crisis.

No one is explaining why it has taken so long to arrive at the known destination that has already been traversed.

The immigration question that has been elevated by selfish beneficiaries into a bizarre national question is regrettable and endangers other law abiding Zimbabweans needlessly.

It is time that a spade is called for what it is.

To assert that a nullity is a right that a lawyer like Simba Chikanza should weaponize at the risk of undermining the legitimate resolution of a self-created problem is asking too much.