While on a visit to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), South African President, Jacob Zuma, stated that the government wanted to make it easier for tourists to travel in and out of the country and was working on amending South Africa’s restrictive visa requirements.
“We are aware of the teething challenges that the newly introduced amendments to our visa regime have caused,” said Zuma. “I can assure you that the government is working on those issues and we’ll soon put them behind us.”
Zuma said many tourists from the UAE liked to visit the country from May to September. He added that South Africa had an abundance of iconic tourist attractions, and continued to see Emirati tourists and other expatriate communities based in the UAE visiting and that bilateral engagements between the two countries would further provide opportunities for government and business to establish mutual trade interests.
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In February, the inter-ministerial committee that was tasked with reviewing the requirements announced that its short-term recommended changes had been completed. These include the extension of the validity period for the parental consent affidavit; biometric data being captured at international airports; and the transit visa being scrapped for all travellers transiting through the country’s international airports.
In January, DHA introduced the Accredited Tourism Company in China and is currently undertaking research to accredit travel agents and tour operators in India and Russia.
The DHA is still looking into issuing a travel advisory that would address the recommendation on the issue of ‘strongly advising’ travellers accompanied by minors from visa-exempt countries to carry an unabridged birth certificate.
The next medium-term recommendations, which should be completed by October 31, will include increasing visa facilitations centres in Zimbabwe, the United Arab Emirates and Botswana, and looking into issuing visas on arrival to travellers who already have a valid visa for the UK, USA, Canada and any other country that applies stringent checks on visitors to their country. DHA is also considering a visa waiver for China, India and Russia.
DHA said all recommendations to the immigration regulations should be completed by March 2017.
