(HERALD) SA abolishes border passes
SA abolishes border passesBeitbridge Bureau
SOUTH Africa through its Home Affairs Department has abolished the use of border passes which were being used by Beitbridge residents to travel to Musina as part of their new immigration regulations. The use of the temporary travel document was scrapped with immediate effect from November 15 this year.
The pass was introduced following a mutual agreement between the SA and Zimbabwean governments to facilitate movement of people who live within a radius of 20 km from the border.
According to a circular, the new regulations came following a directive from the Home Affairs Department headquarters in Pretoria.
"The document issued in lieu of a passport by the Zimbabwean authorities should not be recognised as a travel document since it falls outside the definition of a passport as contained in a section of the Immigration Act 2002. It does not contain information and characteristics as prescribed in Regulation of the Immigration Act, therefore holders of such a document should not be permitted entry to the Republic," read part of the circular.
The document was signed by a Mr G.B Joseph on behalf of the South Africa Immigration Policy and Directives National Immigration branch in Pretoria. Beitbridge Principal Immigration Officer in-charge Mr Dennis Tirivanhu Chitsaka confirmed the development yesterday saying they had since informed their superiors of the new regulations.
"We have since sent the message to our superiors in Harare on the new developments," said Mr Chitsaka.
Chief Executive for Beitbridge Rural District Council Mr Albert Mbedzi yesterday expressed concern over the new development.
He said the scrapping of the border passes would impact negatively on their twinning agreement with Musina municipality in South Africa.
"Definitely this would have an impact on our twinning agreement with authorities at Musina Municipality considering that most of our people in this business have no passports and had been relying on this document," he said. The two local authorities signed a memorandum of understanding in 2005. The scrapping of border passes comes barely a month after the two countries under the Joint Commission on Defence and Security discussed the abolition of visas for Zimbabweans travelling to South Africa.
Zimbabwean immigration officials gave their SA counterparts proposals to relax stringent visa requirements as part of measures to eventually abolish the visa to South Africa.
The SA officials agreed to consider the proposals and said they would brief their superiors and inform their Zimbabwean counterparts.
Labels: BORDERS, SOUTH AFRICA, ZIMBABWE
posted by MrK @ 6:02 AM
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