Party says visa requirements for foreign visitors is hampering growth in tourism sector

13 000 tourists disallowed entry to South Africa

19 April 2017

Defective national legislation by the Department of Home Affairs related to visa requirements for foreign visitors is seriously hampering growth in South Africa’s tourism sector. The necessity for unabridged birth certificates for travelling minors dissuades hundreds of thousands of potential visitors from visiting our country. Just last year, around 13 000 people en route to South Africa were turned away at foreign airports because they were not in possession of the relevant documentation.

I call on the new Minister of Home Affairs, Hlengiwe Mkhize, to review the tourism visa regulations as a matter of urgency, as this archaic legislation is stifling the job-creating and revenue-making potential that South Africa so desperately needs. Unabridged birth certificates for children entering the country is an unnecessary measure which has dire effects on our economy.

South Africa’s tourism industry is one of very few still thriving in the face of economic uncertainty following national government’s increasingly erratic and reckless decisions with regard to our economy. In 2014, 711 746 individuals were employed in the tourism workforce alone, equating to 1 in every 22 South Africans finding employment in this sector. South African tourism has even overtaken the mining sector as a national employer. Furthermore, the sector is earmarked to bring in some R300 billion into the economy. With so much potential, we simply cannot afford to hamper growth in South African tourism, something which the Department of Home Affairs seems hell bent on doing with unnecessary visa regulations.

The initial reasoning behind the visa regulations was to curb child trafficking, but this should be regulated through passenger profiling and co-operation with Interpol, a practice carried out by almost every other country in the world. South Africa’s approach to this problem through the use of unabridged birth certificates is economic suicide.

The DA will continue to protect and foster economic growth in South Africa as a principle means to uplift our people through the creation of jobs and opportunity.

Issued by Beverley Schäfer, Standing Committee Chairperson on Economic Opportunities, Tourism, and Agriculture, 19 April 2017