Responding to comments attributed to Zimbabwe's Home Affairs Co-Minister Kembo Mohadi in the independent Newsday newspaper, spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa said he was not aware of such plans.

"I'm not aware of anything to that effect, that's all can tell you."

Mohadi was quoted as saying Zimbabwean officials would be meeting their South African counterparts in the new year to begin "the second phase".

"Last year, we engaged the South African government on regularising our people, but many were initially suspicious. They thought that we wanted to arrest them. But they are now coming up in large numbers and we hope we will be able to have them regularised," he was quoted saying.

The process had also failed to deal with as many people as would have been expected because of the large number that needed the permits.

"We are going to engage [South Africa] early next year, to get into the second phase," Mohadi said.

In April last year, Pretoria announced a moratorium on the deportation of Zimbabweans. They were granted a special dispensation in order to get documents and make their stay in South Africa legal.

A total of 275 762 applications for permits were received, according to South Africa's home affairs department.

An official at the Zimbabwean Consulate in Johannesburg declined to comment on the matter on Wednesday, saying he had not read the newspaper report.

By The Times (SA)