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Legalising the illegal: an assessment of the Dispensation of Zimbabweans Project (DZP) and Zimbabwe Special Dispensation Permit (ZSP) regularisation projects

Since the late 1990s economic insecurity and political uncertainty have continued to worsen in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe's economy plunged into deep crisis in the early 2000s owing to failed fiscal policies and the highly criticised 'Fast-track' land reform program. Election related violence between 2002 a...

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Main Author: Bimha, Primrose Zvikomborero Joylyn
Other Authors: Akokpari, John
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Department of Political Studies 2017
Subjects:
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access_status_str Open Access
author Bimha, Primrose Zvikomborero Joylyn
author2 Akokpari, John
author_browse Akokpari, John
Bimha, Primrose Zvikomborero Joylyn
author_facet Akokpari, John
Bimha, Primrose Zvikomborero Joylyn
author_sort Bimha, Primrose Zvikomborero Joylyn
collection Thesis
description Since the late 1990s economic insecurity and political uncertainty have continued to worsen in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe's economy plunged into deep crisis in the early 2000s owing to failed fiscal policies and the highly criticised 'Fast-track' land reform program. Election related violence between 2002 and 2013 resulted in a state of insecurity thereby leading to an exodus of Zimbabwean migrants. An unprecedented influx of Zimbabwean migrants to South Africa (SA) led to high levels of illegal migration and the clogging up of the asylum seeker management system in the early 2000s. In 2009, SA launched the Dispensation of Zimbabweans Project (DZP) in order to achieve four main objectives: to reduce pressure on the asylum management system, to curb the deportation of illegal Zimbabwean migrants, to regularise Zimbabweans who were residing in SA illegally and to provide amnesty to Zimbabweans who had obtained South African documents fraudulently. The DZP was considered a success and a successor permit, the Zimbabwe Special Dispensation Permit (ZSP), was launched in 2014 to allow former DZP applicants to extend their stay in South Africa. Using government publications, parliamentary debates, non-governmental organization (NGO) and media reports it was found that the DZP reduced pressure on the asylum seeker management system while deportation figures dropped significantly. It was also found that, less than 6% (250 000) of an estimated 1,5 million undocumented migrants were documented during the regularisation processes. The DZP and ZSP projects complemented South Africa's highly restrictive approach to migration management and jealous safeguarding of access to permanent residence and citizenship. The regularisation projects also enabled the South African government to show sympathy towards Zimbabweans who were forced to migrate to South Africa by recognising that they could not return home as long as the situation back home remained unchanged.
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institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:33:10.259Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2017
publishDateRange 2017
publishDateSort 2017
publisher Department of Political Studies
publisherStr Department of Political Studies
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source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/25184 Legalising the illegal: an assessment of the Dispensation of Zimbabweans Project (DZP) and Zimbabwe Special Dispensation Permit (ZSP) regularisation projects Bimha, Primrose Zvikomborero Joylyn Akokpari, John International Relations Since the late 1990s economic insecurity and political uncertainty have continued to worsen in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe's economy plunged into deep crisis in the early 2000s owing to failed fiscal policies and the highly criticised 'Fast-track' land reform program. Election related violence between 2002 and 2013 resulted in a state of insecurity thereby leading to an exodus of Zimbabwean migrants. An unprecedented influx of Zimbabwean migrants to South Africa (SA) led to high levels of illegal migration and the clogging up of the asylum seeker management system in the early 2000s. In 2009, SA launched the Dispensation of Zimbabweans Project (DZP) in order to achieve four main objectives: to reduce pressure on the asylum management system, to curb the deportation of illegal Zimbabwean migrants, to regularise Zimbabweans who were residing in SA illegally and to provide amnesty to Zimbabweans who had obtained South African documents fraudulently. The DZP was considered a success and a successor permit, the Zimbabwe Special Dispensation Permit (ZSP), was launched in 2014 to allow former DZP applicants to extend their stay in South Africa. Using government publications, parliamentary debates, non-governmental organization (NGO) and media reports it was found that the DZP reduced pressure on the asylum seeker management system while deportation figures dropped significantly. It was also found that, less than 6% (250 000) of an estimated 1,5 million undocumented migrants were documented during the regularisation processes. The DZP and ZSP projects complemented South Africa's highly restrictive approach to migration management and jealous safeguarding of access to permanent residence and citizenship. The regularisation projects also enabled the South African government to show sympathy towards Zimbabweans who were forced to migrate to South Africa by recognising that they could not return home as long as the situation back home remained unchanged. 2017-09-14T12:18:46Z 2017-09-14T12:18:46Z 2017 Master Thesis Masters MSocSc http://hdl.handle.net/11427/25184 eng application/pdf Department of Political Studies Faculty of Humanities University of Cape Town
spellingShingle International Relations
Bimha, Primrose Zvikomborero Joylyn
Legalising the illegal: an assessment of the Dispensation of Zimbabweans Project (DZP) and Zimbabwe Special Dispensation Permit (ZSP) regularisation projects
thesis_degree_str Master's
title Legalising the illegal: an assessment of the Dispensation of Zimbabweans Project (DZP) and Zimbabwe Special Dispensation Permit (ZSP) regularisation projects
title_full Legalising the illegal: an assessment of the Dispensation of Zimbabweans Project (DZP) and Zimbabwe Special Dispensation Permit (ZSP) regularisation projects
title_fullStr Legalising the illegal: an assessment of the Dispensation of Zimbabweans Project (DZP) and Zimbabwe Special Dispensation Permit (ZSP) regularisation projects
title_full_unstemmed Legalising the illegal: an assessment of the Dispensation of Zimbabweans Project (DZP) and Zimbabwe Special Dispensation Permit (ZSP) regularisation projects
title_short Legalising the illegal: an assessment of the Dispensation of Zimbabweans Project (DZP) and Zimbabwe Special Dispensation Permit (ZSP) regularisation projects
title_sort legalising the illegal an assessment of the dispensation of zimbabweans project dzp and zimbabwe special dispensation permit zsp regularisation projects
topic International Relations
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/25184
work_keys_str_mv AT bimhaprimrosezvikomborerojoylyn legalisingtheillegalanassessmentofthedispensationofzimbabweansprojectdzpandzimbabwespecialdispensationpermitzspregularisationprojects