Gallery: The Anxious Wait of Zimbabwe Exemption Holders in Pictures

In January 2022, Minister of Home Affairs, Aaron Motsoaledi decided to terminate the Zimbabwe Exemption Permit – a form of special legal status that has allowed Zimbabwean migrants to lawfully build lives in South Africa for over a decade, after they fled a collapsing Zimbabwe in 2008. The Helen Suzman Foundation, amongst others, has challenged the lawfulness of that decision but for the 178 000 Zimbabweans that hold the ZEP, this has been time of great anxiety as they wait for the court’s decision.

Part of their story is captured here in photography by Madelene Cronje.