In Summary
• The Africa Visa Openness Index Report 2018 ranked Rwanda
third most visa-open country on the continent
• The 2018 Visa Openness Index shows that Africans require
visas to travel to over half the countries on the continent
Millions of travellers within Africa continue to face challenges
due the continent`s inability to implement conducive and common
visa regimes, a conference heard.
The African Economic Conference, hosted by UNDP in Kigali, noted
that despite leaders’ commitments to ease movement, little had
been achieved in building road or air routes linking cities, while
many Africans were still denied entry to a country because of
visas.
The problem, the experts said, was curtailing the free movement of
people protocol, viewed as a key pillar to regional integration
and the African Continental Free Trade Area.
`The commitments to ease movement that have been made must be
realised and jobs have to be created at an unprecedented level,`
Paul Coullier, a professor of Economics and Public Policy at the
University of Oxford, said.
`The barriers imposed in Africa serve in the interest of more
developed countries. The task over the next decade is to build
more connectivity among cities and remove barriers that infringe
growth on the continent.`
The African Development Bank (AfDB) will on Tuesday discuss its
third edition of the Visa Openness Index, which indicates the
countries that were making improvements on free movement across
Africa.
Policy reforms
The Africa Visa Openness Index Report 2018, launched in Addis
Ababa last week, ranked Rwanda third most visa open country on the
continent.
“The Index has helped raise awareness and drive visa

policy
reforms across the continent to ease movement of people, unlocking
opportunities for intra-African tourism, trade and investment. In
so doing, the Bank is directly contributing to the objectives of
the AU initiative for a Single African passport,” Mr Gabriel
Negatu, the AfDB Director General for East Africa Regional
Development said.
Rwanda`s Economic Planning minister Claudine Uwera said that
Kigali had shown political will to push for a visa-free Africa for
the continent`s citizens.
“Rwanda announced early this year a visa on arrival platform for
travellers from all African countries. Development and prosperity
will simply not be possible if we do not integrate,” she said.
“Governance will determine the development path for our countries.
Equally important is the role of political will and commitment
from African leaders. Important pages of our continent’s
development history are being written. Let’s take this opportunity
to move the continent ahead.”
Their score
The 2018 Visa Openness Index shows that Africans require visas to
travel to over half the countries on the continent.
It shows that the top 20 visa-open countries continue to improve
their liberal regimes, while 43 countries improved or maintained
their score.
Benin made the highest jump by opening up its borders to African
travellers, which enabled it to move from 27th in 2017 to 1st
place in 2018.
The West African state, alongside Seychelles �` which is ranked
second ahead of Rwanda - were the only two on the continent that
did not charge Africans visa fees. V.2684

I recently renewed my passport at Home Affairs in a bank branch and was very impressed with the service and quick turnaround time. The Department of Home Affairs (DHA) and major banks first launched the option to do Smart ID card and passport applications via select bank branches in 2016. It has slowly grown to around 30 locations, including branches from Absa, Discovery Bank, FNB, Investec, Nedbank, and Standard Bank. My passport was set to expire in October 2024, and because many countries require that your passport be valid for six months from a travel date, a renewal was due. V.5324
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DA MP says this is up 20 000 from the 74 000 six months previously Department of Home Affairs visa backlog is up by 20 000 in 6 months The Democratic Alliance (DA) can reveal that the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) Visa backlog has increased from 74 000 in August 2023 to 92 000 as of 16 February 2024. This is an increase of just under 20 000 in about 6 months. Download the Parliamentary question and answer here. The increase goes against what the Minister told the Home Affairs Parliamentary Committee in March 2023. V.5325
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The European Union (EU) will limit visas for people from Ethiopia. This is because the Ethiopian government hasn`t been helping take back citizens who stay in the EU illegally. The EU Council announced this in a statement on Monday. Ethiopians won`t get visas for multiple entries anymore. Also, Ethiopians with diplomatic and service passports won`t have their visa fees waived. V.5326
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CRIMINAL convictions more than two decades ago came to haunt a man who was offered a job as a senior data discovery and enrichment expert, but after his prospective employer got wind of the convictions, retracted the job offer. But the Gqeberha Labour Court came to his rescue and found that the man should be given a second chance, given that his convictions occurred 20 years ago and had meanwhile been expunged. V.5327
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Nigeria’s economy, which ranked as Africa’s largest in 2022, is set to slip to fourth place this year and Egypt, which held the top position in 2023, is projected to fall to second behind South Africa after a series of currency devaluations, International Monetary Fund forecasts show. The IMF’s World Economic Outlook estimates Nigeria’s gross domestic product at $253 billion based on current prices this year, lagging energy-rich Algeria at $267 billion, Egypt at $348 billion and South Africa at $373 billion. V.5328
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There are fears that more people will be separated by the introduction of a minimum salary level for those wanting UK family visas. Families living in the UK and abroad have raised concerns about what new rules will mean for them as they try to reunite with foreign spouses. In December, the Home Office, which says migration to the UK is too high, announced a package of measures to reduce net migration, following a spike in arrival numbers. V.5318
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An Ethiopian asylum seeker, who does not speak English, claims he was duped by a senior immigration official into paying an admission of guilt fine when he thought he was paying for bail.Two Western Cape High Court judges have condemned the official`s `deplorable` behaviour, set aside the fine, and ordered the immigration official be taken off the case. Tsegaye Esyas claims Annelise van Dyk treated him like an animal which led to him attempt suicide while in police cells. V.5320
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EREMY MAGGS: I want to stay with crime now. Individuals with a criminal record may be faced with significant challenges when seeking employment, I think that’s a given. Here in South Africa, employers may legally exclude an applicant from consideration for a position if having a clean criminal record is what is termed an inherent requirement of the job. That phrase, inherent requirement, is important, but what exactly does that mean, and when can an applicant be lawfully excluded for having a criminal record? V.5321
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As a South African who has adopted a nomadic work lifestyle alongside my wife, Ingrid Lotze, I’ve been an interested observer of South Africa’s snail-pace digital nomad visa (DNV) development process. Despite the optimism surrounding its introduction, the visa seems to miss several crucial marks for digital nomads like us. V.5322
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DA MP says hours lost continue to result in persons being unable to collect their ID documents due to unmanageable queues The DA has been inundated with complaints that the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) systems are offline, resulting in long queues and delayed processing of documents. Through questions posed to the Minister, the DA can now reveal that the DHA has lost over 77 years’ worth of working hours due to system downtime and load-shedding from 2019 to date. Concerningly, this data only relates to hours lost for the application of smart IDs, meaning decades more of working hours could have been additionally lost in other spheres such as passport or visa applications. V.5314
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