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.

自2000年以来，大量无证津巴布韦人定居在南非，以寻求更好的生活机会。2010年，南非政府批准了一项大赦移民津巴布韦许可证（DZP）。本文认为，DZP申请人是无法分类的合法人，处于合法与非法，合法与非法身份之间。作为具有不确定的政治归属的人，他们反复前往内政部办公室排队等候，在那里他们遭受了直接和间接的暴力以及罪犯和安全官员的骚扰和伤害。根据在开普敦的访谈收集的数据，