South Africa’s new visa rules spark outcry
12 July 2014 5:18 AM IST
Strict new South African immigration laws have sparked confusion and panic among foreign residents in this ‘Gateway to Africa’ and forced 250,000 Zimbabweans to decide whether to return home.
Walk down most streets in Johannesburg and you will hear accents and languages from across this vast African continent. Builders by the roadside waiting for work chatter away in the sweet sing-song rhythm of African Portuguese, waiters stand and gossip between orders employing the rolling Rs. and whistles that mark out Shona, a language of Zimbabwe and southern Zambia.
Congolese, Somalis, Nigerians, Mozambicans and above all Zimbabweans, flock to the ‘City of Gold’ in search of their own little slice of the riches of the Highveld, as the surrounding region is known.
Since the 1880s, when Johannesburg exploded to life with the discovery of vast gold deposits, this has been a city, and a country, of immigrants. ‘Shosholoza’, perhaps South Africa’s most beloved song - belted out at sporting events, political rallies and anywhere more than a handful of people gather - originally came from the Zimbabwean workers making the train journey south to work the mines.
But on Thursday the South African authorities, wary of the inflow amid brutally high unemployment, have begun tightening visa regulations and closing loopholes. New rules quickly snapped into force shortly after the country’s May election, catching scores of expatriate workers of guard. A German doctor waiting six months for the processing of her residence permit was banned from returning to South Africa for five years for overstaying her tourist visa.
Walk down most streets in Johannesburg and you will hear accents and languages from across this vast African continent. Builders by the roadside waiting for work chatter away in the sweet sing-song rhythm of African Portuguese, waiters stand and gossip between orders employing the rolling Rs. and whistles that mark out Shona, a language of Zimbabwe and southern Zambia.
Congolese, Somalis, Nigerians, Mozambicans and above all Zimbabweans, flock to the ‘City of Gold’ in search of their own little slice of the riches of the Highveld, as the surrounding region is known.
Since the 1880s, when Johannesburg exploded to life with the discovery of vast gold deposits, this has been a city, and a country, of immigrants. ‘Shosholoza’, perhaps South Africa’s most beloved song - belted out at sporting events, political rallies and anywhere more than a handful of people gather - originally came from the Zimbabwean workers making the train journey south to work the mines.
But on Thursday the South African authorities, wary of the inflow amid brutally high unemployment, have begun tightening visa regulations and closing loopholes. New rules quickly snapped into force shortly after the country’s May election, catching scores of expatriate workers of guard. A German doctor waiting six months for the processing of her residence permit was banned from returning to South Africa for five years for overstaying her tourist visa.
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