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While a number of challenges have cropped up in the process to document Zimbabwean nationals living in South Africa, the deadline will not be extended beyond the end of the year.
The warning was issued by Home Affairs Director General, Mkuseli Apleni. Instead, the department will monitor the process daily and make adjustments where necessary.
The areas of concern include Zimbabweans not understanding what documents they are required to produce; the lack of material in Zimbabweans' home languages; the accessibility of the necessary forms and long queues.
More than 10 000 Zimbabwean nationals have applied for permits to stay in South Africa since a special documentation process was opened on 20 September.
Undocumented Zimbabweans living is South Africa have until 31 December to apply to the department to have their stay in the country registered.
Apleni, who also met with the Documentation of Zimbabweans Project (DZP) Stakeholders Forum, said information on what documents were needed was filtering down from too many sources, resulting in confusion.
Mike Nyamabebvu, coordinator of the Solidarity Peace Trust and one of the members of the DZP forum, said it was unacceptable that people were sleeping in the streets outside Home Affairs offices. "The problem of sleeping in queues is beginning to trample on the dignity of humanity. It is a situation that needs to be dealt with urgently," he said. - BuaNews
