The Tourism Business Council of South Africa (TBCSA) has described the leaking of a report on the impact of South Africa’s new immigration regulations as “unfortunate”.
This comes after Tourism Update obtained a copy of the report and highlighted some of the findings in a report last week. (See the report here).
“We are disappointed that the report that was shared in confidence with TBCSA members and stakeholders was leaked to the media, particularly now that we have started working with the DHA through the Immigrations Task Team that was announced by Minister Gigaba”, says TBCSA CEO, Mmatšatši Ramawela. 
The TBCSA said the report was commissioned to assess the impact of the new regulations in order to inform the Council’s engagement with the Department of Home Affairs.
According to the TBCSA, after a meeting with Minister Malusi Gigaba, he announced a postponement of the requirement that children under the age of 18 travelling to, from and through SA produce an unabridged birth certificate. The requirement that people travelling to SA on a visa make visa application in person remains in place.
“Although the report is not confidential, it was not meant to be in the public domain, rather, it was meant to provide a basis for an industry dialogue with Home Affairs and other key role-players,” said Ramawela. 
Ramawela stated further that there was an undertaking from stakeholders who received the report that its contents would not be discussed or released in the public domain. “We made it clear that the report is not to be released to the media,” she said. “We remain steadfast on our decision not to publish the report or to discuss its contents outside the boundaries of the Immigration Task Team.”
“Furthermore we want to reaffirm our commitment to working with the DHA, the National Department of Tourism and other stakeholders to find a win-win solution to addressing the security challenges of our country without impacting negatively on the travel and tourism industry, which is already under strain from the Ebola pandemic and the ongoing global economic stress,” said Ramawela.