The Director General of Home Affairs in South Africa, Mkuseli Apleni, said Thursday that Pretoria planned to recruit 50 000 "highly qualified foreign nationals."

At its weekly press conference, Mr Apleni also said that the government will help academics and students to easily obtain work permits and étude.

"The Department of Home Affairs is committed to achieving its goal of recruiting 50,000 highly skilled foreign nationals to ensure that South Africa achieve its development goals," says Apleni.

"By following this goal, we will see, among others, academics and students seeking visas to study and work to pursue their careers and their studies in various institutions of higher education in the country, " the official added .

Mr Apleni said South Africa had undertaken a series of measures through the project study visa and work to expedite visa applications studies for the academic year 2012.

Regarding the status of the Documentation Project of Zimbabwe, which began in 2010, the Director General of Home Affairs said his department still had 20,480 permits.

According to the draft, South Africa is committed to regularize the stay in South Africa of all Zimbabwean nationals without documentation.

To date, the department received 275 762 applications for work permits, study and business, he said.

"To date and after undertaking various measures to contact all applicants, both in terms of delivery of the documents collection permits, we are delighted to say that we issued 255,282 permits , "informed Mr. Apleni, adding: "Therefore, we still have 20,480 licenses to be issued. We reiterate our commitment that they are issued quickly so that the project can complete , "he added.