More Lesotho Nationals encouraged to apply for special permit
PRETORIA – South Africa’s Department of Home Affairs was stepping up efforts to legalise the stay of Lesotho nationals in the country.
Lesotho is a landlocked kingdom located within South Africa, with many Lesotho nationals living and working in South Africa.
South African Minister of Home Affairs Malusi Gigaba visited the Lesotho Special Permit Facilitation and Application Centre in Midrand on Tuesday, and handed out permits to all applicants and sent a message of encouragement to Lesotho nationals in South Africa to “make use of the service centres to apply for the Lesotho Special Permit”.
The Lesotho Special Permit (LSP) is available to Lesotho nationals, also known as Basotho, who have been working, studying or running businesses in South Africa before September 30, 2015 and is issued to Lesotho citizens who are currently registered in Lesotho’s national population register.
The department noted that according to Lesotho’s national population register, there are between 400,000 and 500,000 Lesotho nationals living and working in South Africa and many of them were “living in South Africa illegally and without proper documentation”.
The application centre has received up to 5,694 successful applications for the LSP and Gigaba said more needed to be done to ensure more Lesotho nationals made use of these application centres in order to stay in South Africa legally.
