DA to move for VISA concessions to come before Parliament

Whilst the Inter-Ministerial Committee’s (IMC) concessions announced last week are a step in the right direction, the DA will move to summon the Minister of Home Affairs, Minister of Tourism and the Chairperson of the IMC, Cyril Ramaphosa, to appear before Parliament so that it can satisfy itself that these concessions are not just an exercise in sugar-coating the problem but rather that the concessions alleviate the strain on our tourism sector. 

I will therefore write to the Deputy President, as the convenor of the IMC:

- To request that he and the Ministers concerned brief Parliament on how the following concessions promote more tourist arrivals instead of deterring them; and

- To request that the IMC present all amendments to the VISA regulations before Parliament.

It has been just over a year since the ill-advised VISA regulations were promulgated and already over 9 300 jobs and R9 billion in revenue has been lost. The economy is drowning and time is not on our side.

The DA will interrogate the concessions, their effects on tourist arrivals and the subsequent survival of jobs. Among them the DA will look closely at the following:

- With respect to the manual vetting of requisite unabridged birth certificates and passports, what plans  are in place to increase the turnaround time in this process;

- With regards to the introduction of Accredited Tourism Company (ATC) Programme for China, India and  Russia, how is this concession tackling the problem of potential tourists being deterred by having to apply  for Visa’s in-person? ATC appears to be no more than a mere time-wasting marketing campaign; 

- With regard to building Visa Facilitation Centres (VHC) in China, India, United Kingdom, Nigeria  Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola, Ghana, Kenya and Uganda, how do the Minister’s in the IMC plan to  achieve their set targets of building these in 1 year without exerting more pressure on the tax payer in  order to attain more funding?

The DA welcomes the fact that the IMC has acceded to our previous recommendation of implementing biometric VISAs upon arrival, however we would like to urge the IMC to also consider our submissions in the interests of making it easier and more efficient for tourists to access our country:

- Introduce the electronic VISA system where we take hold of online resources for VISA applications and payments; and

- Repeal unabridged birth certificate requirements and consider digitisation of birth records which will reduce turnaround times on manual verifications of documents.

The DA recognises that tourists not only bring revenue into our economy but they also create jobs. It is therefore essential that Parliament satisfies itself that these amendments will help boost the tourism sector in South Africa. 

Issued by James Vos, DA Shadow Minister of Tourism, 26 October 2015