The existing special permit issued to nearly 200 000 Zimbabweans expires at the end of this year.

Zimbabwean authorities are delighted with the new arrangement.

Chargè d affairs at the Zimbabwe embassy Robert Muranga calls it an act of good neighbourliness.

He appeared with Home Affairs Minister Hlengiwe Mkhize briefing the media on the new permit – applications for which open next week.

Mkhize says migrants play an important role in respect of economic development  and enriching the social and cultural life of a country.

Controlling them requires caution.

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Having said 197 941 Zimbabweans have been issued  with the expiring permit, Mkhize won’t be drawn on the number of Zimbabweans actually living in South Africa.

Africa Check puts this figure at between two and three million.

The post New permit for Zimbabweans living in South Africa appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

The South African minister Hlengiwe Mkhize calls it a positive step serving further to enhance relations between the nations.

Home Affairs Minister Hlengiwe Mkhize calls yesterday’s signing a step in the right direction after a visa waiver agreement was clinched between Presidents Jacob Zuma and Joseph Kabila last June at the South Africa DRC binational commission.

She tells her DRC counterpart Emmanuel Shadari it will further enhance cooperation and development of even stronger relations, by making it even easier for officials to regularly interact with each other, without hindrance.

The post South Africa signs a visa waiver agreement with Congo appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

Opening a dialogue on repositioning Home Affairs she says improved performance will have a hugely beneficial effect on the country’s bottom line.

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Minister Hlengiwe Mkhize lists her department’s challenges: out of date technology means records, which are the lifeblood of an economy, are held in unsuitable wharehouses or captured on defunct systems manned by a handful of technicians and almost no professionals.

She’s determined to change this.

The department will work to ensure there is no fraud, bribery and corruption.

This will create conditions for economic growth and creative solutions to social problems

Mkhize says the National Development Plan cannot be completed without modernising South Africa.

The post Home Affairs will do better, promises Minister appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.