R64.4 million lost every three months due to biometrics in-person visa regulations
21 September 2015
The latest figures provided by Statistics SA (StatsSA) today on the accommodation industry reflect a total drop of R64.4 million in holiday accommodation revenues throughout South Africa in only three months, between April and June 2015 (see here – PDF).
This is a dire situation – and can be ascribed, in no small measure, to the harsh visa regulations, first introduced last year, that require in-person biometric data to be collected before the visitor departs from their home country.
Deputy Minister of Home Affairs, Fatima Chohan, said in a stakeholders’ workshop on September 18 that the department is considering collecting biometric data on arrival from visitors to South Africa. This system needs to be implemented without further delay: For every month we delay this move, millions of rands are being lost to the economy and more jobs are being lost.
It is now time for Tourism Minister, Derek Hanekom, to pull out all the stops and insist on a meeting with his Home Affairs counterpart Malusi Gigaba. The ministers must, as a matter of urgency, thrash out a plan to, without further ado, adopt the biometrics on-arrival system, in which biometric testing is conducted in South Africa once visitors arrive here – and not before they depart from their home countries.
This must be done before any more jobs and businesses shut down. Minister Hanekom should use the alarming StatsSA figures to propel Minister Gigaba to act immediately to save the tourism industry.
I will write a letter to Mr Hanekom to provide the Portfolio Committee on Tourism with substantive evidence as to why he has delayed doing all in his power to have the visa regulations repealed.
Minister Gigaba should set aside the embarrassment caused to his department over this debacle for the sake of saving our tourism industry. Both the fate of thousands of unemployed South Africans and the country’s economy is at stake.
There are huge benefits to having biometrics on arrival, as it cuts turnaround time and streamlines tourism facilitation which are key prerequisites in growing the tourism economy.
In a reply to a DA parliamentary question on visa processing centres, the Minister of Home Affairs noted that they have no centres currently in South America and only three in Europe.
With no visa processing centres in South America – a region that attracted 33 515 visitors from January to May 2015 according to South African Tourism (SAT), how does Minister Hanekom think the tourism industry is going to survive if we completely exclude such a large number of tourists?
Europe makes up the second largest number of tourists - with 589 333 visitors having arrived from January to May 2015, according to SAT. How does Minister Gigaba think only three visa processing centres are enough to facilitate the number of tourists wanting to travel to South Africa? He is intentionally sending the tourism industry on a death path?
The tourism industry creates jobs at all skill levels and is able to absorb a high number of unskilled workers.
The DA will not relent in its fight to provide more job opportunities for South Africans because we believe every citizen has the right to empower themselves.
Statement issued by James Vos MP, DA Shadow Minister of Tourism, September 21 2015
