Liminality in incorporation: regularisation of undocumented Zimbabweans in South Africa

Abstract

Since 2000, large numbers of undocumented Zimbabweans have settled in South Africa in search of better living opportunities. In 2010, the South African government approved an immigration amnesty known as the Dispensation Zimbabwe Permit (DZP). This article argues that DZP applicants were liminal beings who were unclassifiable, situated between legal and illegal, legitimate and illegitimate status. As people with yet undefinable political belongingness, they repeatedly travelled to queues at Home Affairs offices where they experienced direct and indirect violence as well as harassment and victimisation by criminals and security officials alike. Based on data gathered through interviews in Cape Town, this article concludes that DZP applicants endured waiting because of the desire to end the legal and juridical ambiguity of an undocumented status that inhibits access to rights and protections encoded in domestic and international law.