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South Africa’s visa system to be overhauled

Source: Business Tech, 01/01/1970


Communications minister Nomvula Mokonyane has confirmed that
government is looking at a complete overhaul of the country’s visa system.
Speaking at a post-cabinet media briefing on Thursday (6 September),
Mokonyane said that this would include the visa rules governing
children, scarce skills and turnaround times.
She added that the package is currently being formulated by
government, and would be revealed shortly.
“An inter-ministerial team is looking at various aspects of the visa
issue. That has been identified as one of the immediate things that
are within the control of government and government can be in a
position to resolve those,” she said.
“We also know that we have relationships with other countries where
particularly in tourism (where) visas are not a requirement. We also
need to look at other matters that are of concern, including those who
intend to come and invest in South Africa,” she said.
Mokonyane said that the upcoming job and investment summits �` as well
as the proposed government stimulus package �` would also provide
further details on reforms needed to drive growth in the country.
Electronic visas
In May, minister of tourism Derek Hanekom said that his department was
working hard alongside the Department of Home Affairs to push the
country’s tourism numbers higher.
“One of the most effective ways to increase tourist arrivals is to
make it easier for people to travel to our country,” he said.
“A simple analysis of the arrival figures for 2017 shows that while
visitor numbers from visa exempt countries grew impressively, the
opposite is true for visa-requiring countries.
“In 2017, after the decision that visas would no longer be required
for Russian tourists, Russian visitors increased by 52%. In sharp
contrast to this, after we imposed a visa requirement on New Zealand,
the numbers dropped by 24%,” he said.
The promise of e-visas was first officially unveiled in a March 2018
parliamentary Q & A session �` making it easier for tourists to enter
into the country thanks to the online capture of visa and permit
applications and capturing of applicants’ biometrics both locally and
abroad.
The Department of Home Affairs has since confirmed that the first
phase of the e-visa system will be piloted by the 31 March 2019.
It has further indicated that the rollout of phase one of the e-visa
system will be at a foreign mission, embassy or local home affairs
office yet to be determined, with the pilot phase initially covering
temporary residence visas, adjudication of temporary residence visas,
applications for waivers, applicant notifications and biometric
details, it said.


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