Tourist arrivals to the country doubled in the first nine months of the year compared to the same period last year, according to Tourism Minister, Patricia de Lille.
“Between January and September this year, South Africa saw a significant influx of tourists, with over 6.1 million visitors arriving in the country, more than 58.4% when compared to the 3.8million arrivals to South Africa during the same period in 2022.
“During this period, visitors from Africa represented 4.6million of the total arrivals to South Africa, a 60% increase in Africa land arrivals and a 35% increase in Africa air arrivals when compared to the same period in 2022,” de Lille said in response to a suggestion by EFF MP Anthony Matumba that she had failed in her core mandate, including implementing a global tourism brand campaign and integrated destination brand.
The minister was also asked by IFP MP Khethamabala Petros Sithole, whether her department had implemented any of its plans to encourage tourists to visit the country after Covid-19.
De Lille said some of the targets that were not achieved in the previous financial year had been submitted and presented to the portfolio committee with the remedial action.
De Lille said South Africa welcomed more than 862 000 arrivals from Europe between January and September, a 50,9% increase on the more than 571 000 arrivals in 2022.
South Africa welcomed more than 148 000 visitors from Asia, an increase of 82,6% and China`s arrivals showed a significant increase to 3060 visitors in October 2023, a 132,5% increase when compared to the same period in 2022, she said.
De Lille added that all markets saw an increase in arrivals to South Africa

of between 48 and 99%.
“During the first two quarters of 2023, total tourist foreign direct spend amounted to R48 billion.”
Furthermore, South Africans took 18.8 million domestic overnight trips in the first half of 2023.
“This is up 23.4% when compared to the same period in 2022.”
Overnight spend was also up by 21.2% to reach just over R52 billion in the same period, she added.
De Lille noted that there was growth in air access with the resumption of the direct flight from China in February and
Latam launching its inaugural flight to South Africa in September.
South African Airways also relaunched its direct flights from Cape Town and Johannesburg to Sao Paulo in Brazil in October.
She said they were expecting direct flights between Johannesburg and Jeddah in Saudi Arabia to resume this month.
“We are working with the Saudi Arabia Air Access team to secure a direct flight from Cape Town to Jeddah.
“South Africa also has six active airlines connecting over 23 cities in African countries including Nigeria, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Rwanda and Botswana.”
De Lille added that they had scrapped a controversial R1 billion Tottenham Hotspurs deal within a month after her arrival in the department.
“In the 2023-24 financial year, due to my intervention, an out-of-court settlement was reached, unlocking the R1.2 billion Tourism Equity Fund.” The minister said the green paper on the Development and Promotion of Tourism in South Africa was gazetted for public comment in September. V.5114

The Department of Home Affairs is going through a torrid time. As The South African reported earlier this year, naturalised South Africans are being refused smart ID cards. This is despite having the same constitutional rights as every other South African citizen. Now, Home Affairs minister Aaron Motsoaledi has decided to clarify the reasons behind lengthy delays for spousal visas.Business Tech reports that some spousal (and relatives) visas are taking up to two years to process. The minister of Home Affairs says this is because documentation and claims need to be verified. Replying to a parliamentary Q&A session, the minister says the issue is being addressed by the Home Affairs ‘Backlog Eradication Plan’. V.5305
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Border Management Authority SA commissioner Mike Masiapato on Sunday revealed that over a 10-day period during Easter nearly 4,000 people were intercepted attempting to enter the country illegally.Addressing a media briefing, Masiapato said 2,403 of those intercepted did not have any documents at all. Another 1,019 individuals were refused entry for being undesirable and 419 were found inadmissible to enter the country due to various reasons.“The majority of those arrested without documents were intercepted at the vulnerable segments of the borderline. They were processed, declared undesirable for five years, and were deported. Most of the inadmissible individuals were found with invalid passports, fraudulent visas or just failed to produce relevant documents such as valid yellow fever certificates, especially those travelling from yellow fever endemic countries,” Masiapato said. V.5303
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Home affairs minister Aaron Motsoaledi says surveillance drones, speedboats and hand-held biometric devices have been ordered to help manage the country`s porous borders. South Africa`s land borders cover about 4,700km. Insufficient security and the poor state of fencing make the borders insecure, with foreigners entering illegally and allowing other acts of criminality. V.5304
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Home Affairs Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi has blamed visa backlogs on the growth in the number of notarial contracts being instituted by foreign nationals using non-existent spouses. Motsoaledi was speaking at a media briefing in Pretoria, on Tuesday on the amended immigration regulations, over which he said there seemed to be some misunderstanding. He said as a result of the confusion, the department would be withdrawing the gazetted amendments to clear up the misconceptions and would re-gazette them as early as next week. The minister admitted that his department was experiencing a backlog surrounding dependants, spouses and relatives’ visas being sought by foreign nationals who had been approved to come into the country after successfully obtaining employment. He said in most cases while the approvals were easily obtained, they did not include spouses and dependants, which many were decrying as they were not willing to be separated from their families. V.5298
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Home Affairs Minister, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, has moved to clarify a misunderstanding on the gazetted regulations recommendations on the Critical Skills and General Work Visas. This comes after some media reports had stated that the department had done away with the Critical Skills Visa in favour of a point-based system. Briefing the media on the Second Amendment of the Immigration Regulation 2014 on Tuesday, Motsoaledi pointed out that section 19(4) of the Immigration Act states that a Critical Skills Work Visa may be issued by the Director-General to an individual possessing such skills or qualifications determined to be critical for the Republic from time to time by the Minister by notice in the gazette. V.5299
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The Department of Home Affairs (DHA) has backtracked on its new Immigration Regulations but still has several new initiatives in the pipeline for South Africa. Minister of Home Affairs Aaron Motsoaledi said that he would withdraw the recently gazetted Immigration Regulation Amendments. The regulations replaced the highly-contested critical skills list with a new points-based system. The regulations were received positively by businesses in South Africa, with the Consumer Goods Council of South Africa saying that they should ease the administrative burden that international companies with businesses in South Africa face when hiring skilled foreigners. V.5300
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The Department of Home Affairs says it has lost close to 38 000 working hours over the past five financial years due to the impact of load shedding. The Eastern Cape has the highest amount of working hours lost at more than 7 900. Mpumalanga lost 5 990 hours, while Gauteng lost 4 621 working hours. This was revealed by the Minister of Home Affairs, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, replying to a Democratic Alliance (DA) parliamentary question on the total hours lost in each province due to load shedding. DA MP, Christopher Roos, who posed the question, says this is an alarming number of working hours lost, and is a concern for service delivery. V.5301
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Industry injected an estimated R1.2bn into the Western Cape economy in the last financial year, with around 90 000 passengers and 38 000 crew members expected to step ashore in the current year. For the first time in history, Friday (11 April) saw two of the world’s most famous cruise liners the Queen Mary 2 and the Queen Victoria dock in the Port of Cape Town at the same time. V.5302
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In the past, prior to the amendments to the Immigration Act, it was possible for an illegal foreigner to “legalise” or “regularise” him/herself from within South Africa by making payment of the requisite fine. This is no longer the case and we are constantly encountering foreigners who find themselves illegally in South Africa with little hope of rectifying their situation. The current dilemma In many cases, these illegal foreigners elect to depart South Africa and contest any ban issued to them from outside of the country. This involves the submission of an overstay appeal to the Department of Home Affairs (“DHA”). A number of foreigners, however, simply have too much invested in South Africa and are unwilling to depart the country for fear of incurring a ban that may or may not be overturned. V.5294
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By its own admission, the department loses most of its court cases- the costs of which are borne by the taxpayer. Dzmitry Dzenisiuk was deployed to SA in 2014, with his wife joining him under a spousal visa. Both applied for visa extensions in February 2021. Image: Moneyweb The Department of Home Affairs (DHA) has been blocked by the Pretoria High Court from deporting a foreign worker and his wife, both of whom had been refused visa extensions, based on its failure to properly consider the documents supplied in their visa applications. This is the latest in a string of court losses notched up by Home Affairs. In the latest ruling, the high court ruled that the decision not to renew the visa of two foreign nationals must be set aside and returned to Home Affairs for reconsideration. V.5295
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