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Opinion: Home Affairs malign effect on jobs under-reported

Source: Tourism Update, 30/09/2015

South Africa, which missed out on the commodities super cycle, is now
also missing the tourism super cycle.

Calculations by Grant Thornton in their report for TBCSA on the cost
of the new DHA regulations did not include the tourism jobs windfall,
which South Africa should have experienced as a consequence of the
collapsed rand.

Since the end of June last year, tourists from Europe find their
battered euro still goes 9 % further when buying rands. Yet the latest
stats from Statistics South Africa show numbers from Germany dropped
12 % in June, compared to the previous year.

UK tourists today find the rand 19 % cheaper than in June last year,
yet their visitor numbers in June are down 8 % this year.

Tourists from the USA today can buy 32 % more rands with their dollar
than 15 months ago. Based on the elasticity of price and demand, the
number of visitors should soar and new jobs should be in abundance.

Instead US arrivals dropped 9 %.

India`s Rupee has appreciated 20 % while visitor numbers in June
dropped 25 %, an accelerating trend as the year-to-date figure for the
first six months is 15 %. China`s currency buys 28 % more rands but
the number of Chinese declined by 28 %.

Many of the visitors in these two source markets are affected both by
the Unabridged Birth Certificate regulations for minors as well as the
new biometric visa requirement – the equipment for which, ironically,
Home Affairs has admitted to Tourism Update is yet to be installed in
the South African missions in China, India and Russia..

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If you are visiting SA or already here on a visa, take this as a public-interest warning. In 2025, a quiet, but sharp, shift has taken hold inside parts of home affairs adjudication ranks: applications are being refused almost mechanically if they were not submitted at least 60 days before visa expiry.A wave of refusals repeating near-identical wording:The applicant did not submit his/her application no less than 60 days prior to the expiry date of his/her.

The rigid application of this rule, devoid of consideration for mitigating circumstances, raises serious concerns about the fairness and legality of such administrative decisions.

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