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SA urged to explain secret deportation decision
Alex Bell, SW Radio Africa
October 17, 2011

South Africa is being urged to explain its decision to resume deportations of undocumented Zimbabweans, with a top official being accused of misleading the government.

More than 500 nationals have been taken across the border and handed over to immigration officials at Beitbridge, after South Africa apparently lifted its moratorium on deportations last week. The deportations were expected after a directive from South Africa's department of Home Affairs was quietly circulated earlier this month, indicating that the removals would begin "with immediate effect."

The forced removals have shocked civil society groups in South Africa, who were previously told that the government would only resume the deportations when it had finalised the Zimbabwe Documentation Project (ZDP). That project has not yet been completed.

Refugee rights group PASSOP and the Zimbabwe Exiles Forum (ZEF) have both now raised concerns about the lack of transparency from South Africa's department of Home Affairs. The groups have requested a meeting with representatives of a Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs, to try and get to the bottom of what they called a 'contradiction' from the department's Director General Mkuseli Apleni.

PASSOP's Braam Hanekom told SW Radio Africa on Monday that there is a major discrepancy between what Apleni told the Parliamentary Committee in September this year, and the move to sign the directive regarding deportations.

During the presentation and question and answer session with the Committee, Apleni stated that once the ZDP is completed a report would be compiled and presented to the Home Affairs Minister. He also insisted that until this process was completed "no Zimbabweans would be deported". Apleni stated: "we were clear that no Zimbabwean will be deported up to the time that we close the project".

Hanekom explained that he made these comments just a few weeks before signing the directive to resume the deportations.

"We cannot believe that in the same week that the Director General briefed the Parliamentary Committee on the ZDP, he then failed to mention that he was about to sign a directive that ordered the resumption of deportations of Zimbabweans," Hanekom explained.

He added: "We expect transparency and honesty from the Department of Home Affairs. After fully reviewing the meeting's minutes and transcripts, we believe that the Director General has misled parliament and civil society. To this end, we have lodged a complaint and requested to meet the Committee to discuss the matter."

Hanekom added that the deportations have left South Africa's community of undocumented Zimbabweans "scared and confused." He said that many people who applied for asylum last year are now being threatened with deportation when they go and renew their status.

"We are completely against this. It has seriously far reaching consequences and is very problematic," Hanekom said.

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