‘Illegal’ Basotho face deportation

UNDOCUMENTED Lesotho nationals working‚ studying or doing business in South Africa have until tomorrow to apply for a Lesotho Special Permit (LSP).

This after the South African Department of Home Affairs extended the application deadline twice this year‚ in June and in September.

Failure by affected Lesotho nationals to get proper documentation by tomorrow could result in them being deported from South Africa by March next year.

This includes Lesotho nationals who have paid the application fee on time but have failed to process their paperwork.

This is according to a statement issued this week by Meropa Communications on behalf of VFS Global, which stated that no further extensions for applications would be granted by Home Affairs.

VFS Global is a company contracted to operate the various application centres and processing of permits.

In a final push to assist applicants‚ provincial LSP centres and mobile units at ports of entry will be open until the deadline. In the Eastern Cape, mobile units for applications can be found at the entry ports in Telebridge in Sterkspruit and Qachas’s Neck in Matatiele.

Elsewhere, they can be found at the Maseru‚ Ficksburg‚ Van Rooyen Heck and Fouriesburg entry ports.

They will be opened daily from 6am to 11pm with the exception of Maseru and Ficksburg, which will be open 24 hours a day.

According to VFS, to date 179 452 applications and 85 276 payments for permits have been received. Thus far 43 034 permits have been issued.

Lesotho nationals who produced Lesotho identity documentation cards when applying, without valid passports, are to provide these by latest the end of March, failing which they face deportation, the statement warned.

Lesotho nationals who had applied should phone the VFS call centre to check if their permits were ready and duly collect them‚ it said.

Earlier this year, the South African government granted an amnesty to Basotho in possession of fraudulently acquired documentation so that they could surrender such documents without fear of arrest or deportation.

Earlier this month Home Affairs Director-General Mkuseli Apleni and Lesotho’s Home Affairs Principal Secretary Borenahabokhete Sekonyela visited the Ficksburg and Maseru Bridge entry ports in a bid to urge Lesotho nationals to apply for their special permits. — DDR