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The waiver of the permit fee for illegal Zimbabwean immigrants represents a financial loss of a whopping R419 158 240 to home affairs. That is a lot of money to waive for a department that is in a bad financial condition. It represents almost 10% of home affairs' R5bn budget. In addition there is the opportunity cost of resources that have been redeployed from other sections within home affairs to work on the Zimbabwe dispensation project. Plus the cost of the consultants that are working on the project. The total economic cost of the dispensation could easily be in the region of R1bn.
According to home affairs, 275 762 illegal Zimbabwean immigrants have applied for legalisation. The R1 520 permit fee that immigrants usually pay has been waived for them.
I'm not sure whether they pay the repatriation deposit (R2 040 when I immigrated 7 years ago).
At the same time, the cost of a re-issued ID has been hiked by 600% from R20 to R140. A passport has been hiked by 110% from R190 to R400.
National Treasury is one of the best run departments in this country, but it baffles me that they approved the permit fee waiver for the illegal Zimbabweans. Illegal immigrants spend at least R2 000 per year to maintain their illegal status. This is in the form of bribes to immigration officials, bus drivers and police. Some of them had to travel to the border every 3 months to get their passports stamped. They can afford the R1 520 permit fee.
The department probably thought it was doing an act of goodwill, but how are taxpayers and South Africans meant to feel when the cost of their documents more than doubles and the illegal Zimbabweans get legalised for free?
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