SA Home Affairs Minister, Malusi Gigaba, today announced a number of changes to make it easier for tourists, business people and academia to come to South Africa.

The SA tourism industry reacted positively to the initial economic recovery plan announcement by President Cyril Ramaphosa on September 21, anticipating a possible scrapping of the tourism-repressing unabridged birth certificate (UBC) requirement. However, Gigaba’s detailing of the amendments at a media briefing on Tuesday, September 25, has been received with disappointment across the private tourism industry.

The UBC regulation amendments include:

• Instead of requiring all foreign nationals travelling with minors to carry documentation proving parental consent for the minor to travel, “we will rather strongly recommend that travellers carry this documentation”
• Immigration officials will only insist on documentation by exception, for instance high-risk situations, rather than for all travellers
• Rather than denying entry where documentation is absent, travellers will be given an opportunity to prove parental consent

While SA Tourism CEO, Sisa Ntshona, says this is the first major key reform in the tourism space as far as immigration is concerned, tourism stakeholders across the industry have voiced strong concerns.

CEO of the Southern Africa Tourism Services Association (Satsa) David Frost, says the industry had expected full clarity on how the regulations would be amended. “Instead, Home Affairs issued an obfuscated message that serves only to confuse travellers. We believe the requirement to produce Unabridged Birth Certificates must be eliminated immediately across the board to ensure South Africa’s competitiveness as a tourism destination and remove any confusion around the requirements for foreign minors travelling to South Africa.”

Tshifhiwa Tshivhengwa, Interim CEO of the Tourism Business Council of South Africa (TBCSA), concurs, adding that the TBCSA has engaged with government on the negative impact of these regulations, requesting statistics on child trafficking through international airports – which never happened. “The announcement today doesn’t change anything; Home Affairs is once again circling around this issue.”

The airline industry has also expressed its disappointment, with CEO of the Board of Airline Representatives of South Africa (BARSA), June Crawford, saying that BARSA is concerned at the lack of clear action to address and reverse the negative effects of the unabridged birth certificate requirements, “which the airline and tourism industry has made numerous representations on”, says Crawford, adding that proof of parental consent is still in required for foreign travelling minors.

Otto de Vries, CEO of the Association of Southern African Travel Agents (Asata), believes the UBC requirement has a negative impact on South Africa’s substantial VFR (Visiting Friends and Relatives) inbound tourist arrivals, with inbound VFR traffic to South Africa accounting for as much as 3.3 million arrivals in 2016/2017.

Beverley Schafer, Standing Committee Chairperson on Economic Opportunities, Tourism, and Agriculture; and Democratic Alliance (DA) Western Cape Spokesperson on Economic Opportunities, Tourism, and Agriculture, comments that while the DA in the Western Cape welcomes the relaxation of UBCs for foreign national minors, she is concerned about the understaffing of immigration counters at Cape Town International Airport.

What are your thoughts on the unabridged birth certificate amendments?