Think tank urges visa solution

It has been deemed a disruptive element in doing business

THE backlash over South Africa’s new visa regulations has forced a Brics think tank to propose a new visa regime for South Africans wishing to travel to Brics countries, ensuring they can travel with ease.

The new Brics card, which will initially be issued to certain travellers, would prevent South Africans visiting other Brics countries from being subjected to those countries’ tough visa regulations.

The proposal is that the new Brics card should first consider exempting businesspeople from tough visa regulations when visiting countries like China and Russia. This would be later extended to academics and researchers from South Africa when they visit Brics countries.

The think tank advises Brics on key policy, research and development issues.

Jaya Josie, head of the Brics research centre, said this week the proposal had been discussed, but there were no details as yet. Discussions were still ongoing, but there was nothing concrete on the table and no deadline to conclude the matter.

But the intention was to prevent South Africans wanting to visit Brics countries from having to adhere to the stringent visa regulations.

China and Russia have responded to South Africa’s new visa regulations in kind, by introducing their own stringent regulations on South Africans. This has been deemed a disruptive element in doing business between these countries.

A Human Sciences Research Council official, who is travelling to China in September for a conference, said China had included new tough requirements on their visa applications.

She said these requirements were not there before and would make it difficult to travel to Beijing for the conference.

Josie said they hoped that the proposed Brics card would be accepted by the bloc and put an end to stringent visa regulations. She said the discussions would determine what the next move of the Brics member countries would be. They expected that the matter would be discussed in a frank and robust manner.

The government has been under pressure to review its new visa regulations.

The DA said yesterday the new regulations have led to 1 000 job losses in the tourism sector. DA MP James Vos said this was a difficult situation for South Africa and the hospitality industry.

“A meeting I had with industry stakeholders, including hotels and tour operators, it was revealed that the number of tourists to South Africa has decreased as a direct result of the recently introduced visa regulations.”

Vos said he would write to Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene to get his reaction on the economic impact of the new visa regulations on tourism.