• SA’s messaging to tourists and business travellers remains opaque.
• New measures need swift implementation.
• More is needed to loosen SA`s `petrified capital`.
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If ever there was a perfect example of South Africa requiring a
burning platform before taking decisive action on the economy, it’s
encapsulated in Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba’s eventual
climbdown on some of the more damaging elements of the destructive
visa regime he implemented on his first sojourn at that department.
It has taken Gigaba three years to implement just some changes to the
visa regime which, as tourism and business lobby groups have pointed
out from the start, are damaging to the economy.
The amendments, if anything, serve to muddy the waters even further
when it comes to visa requirements.
The new measures �` which are touted as enabling regular business
travellers to get extended visas, reducing requirements on citizens
from selected countries to get access to SA, and finally the dropping
of the ludicrous demand that the parents of foreign children carry
additional documentation in addition to their passports to get access
to the country - will require the retraining of legions of civil
servants who are barely attuned to the last set of maddening rules.
It’s impossible to quantify exactly how much damage has been done to
tourism over the past three years as government messaging around visa
requirements varied between the murky to the destructive.
Some 13,000 families are reported to have been turned away from
boarding flights to South Africa because they didn’t have the
appropriate documentation demanded by South Africa’s Home Affairs
department. It’s unclear how many more would simply have made
alternative travel choices rather than be lumbered with the
inconvenience of restrictive rules.
The effort taken to visit South Africa has seen the country
significantly underperform in a booming global industry, which is
currently growing north of 5% a year. Grant Thornton puts growth in
tourism numbers to South Africa at half that.
It’s a massive wasted opportunity.
President Cyril Ramaphosa flagged tourism as one of the critical
elements of his stimulus plan for the country. There is a direct
correlation between an increase in visitor numbers and jobs created in
the industry. The tourism industry calculates that one new job is
created for every nine additional tourists to the country.
South Africa’s tourism numbers are blurred by the inability of Home
Affairs to distinguish between migrant workers who repatriate a large
portion of their earnings, and those whose spend goes directly on
tourism and domestic consumption. Greater clarity is needed in
defining the difference between genuine tourism, business travel and
those who travel across borders for work.
The Tourism Business Council of South Africa, while unimpressed with
the visa changes, is appealing for their speedy and efficient
implementation to ease the burden on travellers this season. The
reality is that

foreign tourists going to long-haul destinations like
South Africa plan significantly in advance and the changes are
unlikely to have any real impact on the current tourist season. There
is an immediate effect of bad regulation and a lag in repairing the
damage it has caused.
Home Affairs` belligerence on domestic travellers requiring permission
to travel out of the country by non-travelling parents and to carry
unabridged birth certificates in addition to passports, remains a
ridiculous bureaucratic burden for South Africans looking to travel
abroad. The decision to force parents to grant permission for every
trip was based on fake data of child trafficking from South Africa and
remains a serious impediment to travelling families.
There is progress in other areas.
Visitors from China and India will no longer have to travel in person
across the vast expanses of their respective countries to apply for
visas in person, but will be allowed to use intermediaries. The long
overdue introduction of biometric movement control systems at the
country’s busiest airports should go some way to reduce congestion on
arrival at South African ports of entry. Speed and implementation are
of the essence.
Ramaphosa’s planned stimulus package announced on Friday showed that
government was coming to terms with the fact that “business as usual”
was no longer working. He promised greater clarity not only on
tourism, but mining and land reform too.
Ratings agency Fitch, which already has a sub-investment grade rating
on South African debt, has expressed reservations about the
significance of the measures unveiled by the president last week
amidst concerns that Moody’s, the only major ratings agency which
retains an investment grade rating on SA, is considering the soundness
of its position.
‘Petrified capital’
In his address to the UN in New York this week, the president used the
opportunity to quell concerns about policy and the impact of land
reform on property rights. The movement on visas, while positive, is
hardly the radical overhaul needed to announce South Africa is open
for business.
The president has tasked a group of veteran business leaders including
former Standard Bank CEO Jacko Maree and the former finance minister
and now Old Mutual chairperson, Trevor Manuel, with raising $100bn in
foreign direct investment over five years.
Ramaphosa will be hoping that by talking up opportunities for reforms,
he will encourage South African CEOs to loosen the purse strings on
the so-called “lazy capital” locked into domestic balance sheets.
Perhaps we should use the term “petrified capital” which like
fossilised wood has turned to stone is immovable and stuck in time.
Our messaging around SA being open for business needs to change
quickly if we are to grasp the nettle on an economic rebound. V.2487

All 30 bank branches offering Smart ID cards and passport renewals Hanno Labuschagne14 May 2024 All 30 bank branches offering Smart ID cards and passport renewals Over half the bank branches that support Smart ID card issuing and passport renewals are in Gauteng. In addition, more than 83% of the branches are in the three most populous provinces in South Africa, while only about 56.3% of the country’s population lives in these provinces. Many people will have to travel far to use one of these branches instead of a regular, problem-ridden Home Affairs office to get a new ID or passport. Thirty bank branches support the eHomeAffairs system introduced by the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) in 2016. V.5355
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The Constitutional Court recently ruled that children born in South Africa to foreign parents qualify for South African citizenship in terms of Section 2 of the South African Citizenship Act. That is, if you were born in South Africa to foreign parents who have not been admitted as permanent residents, you qualify to apply for South African citizenship upon becoming a major if your birth was registered and if you have lived here all your life, irrespective of the date of your birth and you have not accepted the nationality of another country. The judgment also reduced the term for applying for citizenship by holders of permanent residence from 5 years to 10 years by declaring Regulation 3(2)(a) of the Citizenship Act Regulations unconstitutional. V.5357
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Turkey Visa for South African Citizens In 2013, the e Visa program was launched by the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, enabling citizens of more than 100 countries, such as South Africa, to request a Turkish visa through the internet. Therefore, South African tourists favor Turkey as a destination. South African citizens are no longer required to visit the Turkish embassy in person as they can now conveniently apply for their e-visa online. V.5348
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The Australian High Court passed a judgement on Friday that dismissed an Iranian asylum seeker’s plea to be released from immigration detention and enter the country. The Iranian asylum seeker, applicant ASF-17, applied to the Federal Court of Australia for a writ of habeas corpus in 2023 on the basis that his continuing detention exceeded the constitutional limitation identified in the orders of NZYQ v Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs released the week prior. The applicant has been refusing to cooperate with the process of being removed from Australia to Iran since 2018, arguing that he would be at risk of persecution for his sexual orientation and religious beliefs. V.5349
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Home Affairs officials are “selling South Africa to foreign nationals” out of greed, says Minister Aaron Motsoaledi. In an exclusive interview with The Witness on Thursday, Motsoaledi said 182 department officials were dismissed for fraud and corruption between 2018 and 2024. Among those dismissed was a chief director who was implicated in assisting a foreign national in getting a permanent residence permit in the country, at a fee. Those who bear the brunt of the corruption are mostly drug addicts, whose personal information is used by Home Affairs officials to create fake IDs and passports for foreigners. V.5350
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Visa waivers for travellers from Kenya and Ghana have catalysed a remarkable 15.4% increase in international tourist numbers to South Africa. File picture: Tracey Adams/ Independent Newspapers South Africa`s tourism sector is experiencing a renaissance fuelled by the recent removal of visa requirements for travellers from select African countries. The latest data from Statistics South Africa showed a remarkable surge in international arrivals, signalling a promising trajectory for the industry. V.5354
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The City of Cape Town has called on the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) to address the visa system crisis and confusion over remote work visas. James Vos, the City’s Mayco member for economic growth, says the department ‘shot itself in the foot’ with the premature gazetting and withdrawal of regulations. ‘On 28 March, the DHA published the amended immigration regulations. This, however, was a day before the closing date of the public comment period. And then, on 12 April, the minister issued a notice withdrawing the 28 March amendments.’ As reported by BusinessTech, the regulations replaced the critical skills list with a new points-based system and introduced the remote work visa category. V.5345
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The City of Cape Town has slammed the Department of Home Affairs for creating confusion and continuing to score “infuriating” own goals in launching remote work visas in the country. Mayoral committee member for economic growth, James Vos, said that the last month has seen the department shoot itself in the foot with the premature gazetting and subsequent withdrawal of regulations that would create this category of visa. “On 28 March, the DHA published the amended immigration regulations. This, however, was a day before the closing date of the public comment period. And then, on 12 April, the minister issued a notice withdrawing the 28 March amendments,” Vos said. V.5346
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Recently settled case in the Labour Court demonstrated that excluding a job applicant because of their criminal record is only lawful when the requirements of that job explicitly outline and justify the need for a clean criminal record. However, legal experts say that the court’s decision ultimately delinked trust and honesty from the inherent requirements of a job, which was “concerning.” ENS Africa’s Nils Braatvedt, Kim Vova, and Lutho Zono examined the background, outcome, and subsequent analysis of the recent court ruling in O’Connor v LexisNexis. V.5347
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The City of Cape Town has slammed the Department of Home Affairs for creating confusion and continuing to score “infuriating” own goals in launching remote work visas in the country. Mayoral committee member for economic growth, James Vos, said that the last month has seen the department shoot itself in the foot with the premature gazetting-and subsequent withdrawal-of regulations that would create this category of visa. V.5343
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