Home affairs `slow` with visa changes

Source: Cape Times, 23/11/2015

TOURISM industry players are accusing the Department of Home Affairs
of dragging its feet in implementing the revised visa regulations,
saying this has caused the country to lose out on potential tourists
over the busy summer period.


The government said last month that some of the more onerous visa
rules had been eased. The regulations have been blamed for causing a
substantial drop in tourist arrivals to SA, costing the economy
billions of rand.


Following the revision, inbound travellers accompanied by minor
children were no longer required to produce an unabridged birth
certificate and prospective visitors did not have to apply for visas
in person. The concessions were divided into those taking effect
within three months, between three months and a year, and beyond one
year. Southern African Tourism Services Association CEO David Frost
said the unabridged birth certificate requirement still stood more
than three weeks after the announcement that the regulations would be
eased.


"We have been quite patient. It has been three-and-half weeks since
the announcement was made. Why were these rules rescinded? It`s
because they were having a detrimental effect on tourism. So let`s get
them sorted out," said Mr Frost.


He said rescinding the unabridged birth certificate requirement should
be "half-a-day`s job. Why does it take three-and-half weeks? We have
lost any benefit we might have gained over the December period. It has
not been lost to the tourism industry, but to the country," Mr Frost
said.


"All we are asking for is that the Cabinet decision be executed. We
will have to write to the deputy president to ask him to get his
minister to do his job."


The World Travel and Tourism Council said last week it was key for the
government not only to implement the changes quickly, but to
communicate the changes — in clear language — to travellers and the
governments affected by the changes.


Department spokesman Mayihlome Tshwete said: "We are bound by laws and
when these types of concessions are made, we don`t just wake up and
change our minds. These recommendations can`t happen overnight," he
said.


Mr Tshwete said the Cabinet mandated the department to put in place
the necessary legal instruments to help prove the relationship between
an adult and an accompanying minor. "The status quo will remain until
such time that the department has provided this legal instrument. We
are trying to find — within the legal means — a way to make the
regulations a reality … children must be protected," he said.