Home Affairs failing to implement amendments to ‘job-killing’ visa regulations

24 November 2015

The Democratic Alliance (DA) condemns the failure by the Department of Home Affairs to implement the revised visa regulations after government’s much-hyped promise to amend the job-killing visa regulations last month.

Key members of the Tourism Industry players are complaining that the visa changes have not been implemented by the Department. For instance, the unabridged birth certificate requirement is still in place, nearly four weeks after the announcement by Minister in the Presidency, Jeff Radebe, that SA would amend its visa regulations following a drop in numbers of visitors to the country and billions lost in revenue.

Department of Home Affairs spokesperson, Mayihlome Tshwete defended the Department on twitter today, stating that “because the law came through Parliament they can’t be changed overnight.” Minister of Tourism, Derek Hanekom, however rebuffed this assertion quipping at Tshwete that “you really ought to know that the provisions are in regulations, not the Act.”

While the Departments of Tourism and Home Affairs slug it out, it is the South African tourism industry, and the jobs it supports, that continues to suffer.

Earlier this month, Deputy President Ramaphosa, answering questions in the National Assembly, confirmed that the government would take action to mitigate the unintended consequences which the visa regulations had had on tourism. But the steps to accept visa requests by post and set up biometric testing at its airports are yet to be implemented. Visitors with minor children are still being asked to produce unabridged birth certificates.

It is of great concern that the Department is dragging its feet on this matter. Tourism has a massive potential for job creation and already supports 1.5 million jobs. For every 12 tourists that come to South Africa, one job is created

I will, today, write to deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa, the chairman of the Inter-Ministerial Committee set up to resolve the visa regulations issue, to ask him what plan is in place to implement the revised visa regulations and to provide clear time frames on when the concessions will take place.

It is the Deputy President who in his reply to Parliament acknowledged that tourism is an important sector in the SA economy and said the new measures - which would “ease the visa application process and remove onerous requirements for visitors travelling with children without compromising the country’s security or undermining our efforts to combat child trafficking” - would be implemented in a “phased manner over the course of the next few months.”

We call on the Department of Home Affairs and Deputy President Ramaphosa to act urgently to quell the effects of the job-killing visa regulations and inform the travel industry of the time frames for the revised visa changes.

Statement issued by James Vos MP, DA Shadow Minister of Tourism, 24 November 2015