Barnabas Muvhuti is one of approximately 180,000 holders of the Zimbabwe Exemption Permit (ZEP). In November 2021, the South African government announced it would not renew the ZEP at the end of 2021, instead giving Zimbabweans who held a ZEP a ‘grace period’ of one year to apply for mainstream permits from the Department of Home Affairs (DHA). The decision caught us unawares and renewed or reinforced our sense of limbo and instability. In this article, Barnabas reflects on the situation and describe the mixed reactions of fellow Zimbabweans.
South Africa
Cape Town, South Africa
Most African migrants living in South Africa have seen or experienced xenophobic attacks in the townships and on city streets. These attacks are a response by poor black South Africans to the presence of African migrants who are perceived as taking away jobs, and whom politicians blame for increasing pressure on social services. The attacks are fueled by the populist rhetoric of politicians determined to divert attention from their persistent failures at service delivery and their unchecked corruption. Barnabas Ticha Muvhuti discusses the microaggressions that foreign restaurant servers face in their workplaces and how they learn to cope with them.