On average, 40 people a day are turned away from travelling to South Africa because of continued confusion surrounding the requirement for unabridged birth certificates (UBC) for minors travelling to the country, says Satsa CEO, David Frost, quoting statistics he received from SAA.

This week, Satsa is taking the government to task over its failure to implement the lifting – announced six months ago – of the UBC requirements. Satsa’s board has mandated Frost to write a strongly worded letter of complaint to Home Affairs Minister, Malusi Gigaba, and to table the matter at a ministerial task team meeting with Tourism Minister, Derek Hanekom, on Thursday this week.

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Speaking at WTM Africa in Cape Town, a frustrated Frost said he was ready to “bash down walls” to get the restrictions lifted. “In October we were told the immigration restrictions would be lifted but they are still in force.

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While arrivals are up 16% year-on-year in January because of the exchange rate slump, we have done nothing to deserve it. We need to stop talking and start acting. Government is just never able to take a decision and move into action. It is disquieting that government has done nothing since the Minister of Finance (Pravin Gordhan) was appointed. It seems to be in paralysis.”

In the latest incident, three concerts and a music workshop of acclaimed US high school choir, The Main Street Singers, had to be cancelled in Gauteng at the weekend after the choir was prevented from travelling to South Africa because of confusion surrounding unabridged birth certificates. On Friday, Delta Air Lines denied boarding to 27 minors in a group of 41 people travelling with Africa Deluxe Tours (Afrilux) from San Francisco via Atlanta to Johannesburg. Afrilux owner, Mike Smuts, said the choir was well informed of their travel document requirements. He said a Delta supervisor later admitted to the tour leader that they should have been allowed to board their flight. The choir was eventually due to arrive on Sunday evening to continue their tour around the country, but payments for two nights’ accommodation in Sandton and venue fees at the Sandton International Convention Centre had to be forfeited.

Meanwhile, Frost said Thursday’s upcoming meeting was the first of a ministerial task team established to look into “market access and barrier removal”.  It is one of several task groups established after a meeting five weeks ago between Hanekom, senior National Treasury officials and tourism industry leaders to find quick-win solutions to head-off South Africa’s looming economic downgrade. Apart from raising the UBC issue, Frost intends to propose that six-month visas be issued in future to 50, 000 British, German and Scandinavian “swallows”, who currently visit South Africa annually for two months and 28 days only, the same duration as their current tourist visas.

Other key task teams were looking into:

• Marketing, with R30m (€1.78m) – R15m (€880 000) from the TOMSA levy and R15m from SA Tourism – to be spent on targeted trade deals in the UK, USA, Germany and China;
• Brand SA;
• Business events; and
• Transformation of the industry.

Meanwhile, Satsa and Wesgro have signed a Memorandum of Understanding for a three-year joint marketing agreement to drive low-season travel to the Western Cape. They will target new markets where SA Tourism is not active, including the UAE, Singapore and Italy. Satsa and Wesgro will attend the Arabian Travel Market in Dubai together later this month.