Gigaba’s rash visa rule costly for SA

If ever there was a “Teflon Minister” in our government – for whom the most serious criticism or allegation slides away easier than water off a duck’s back – then the leading candidate must be Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba. With a straight, and occasionally smiling, face, he yesterday announced amendments to visa and immigration requirements which have been blamed for seriously denting South Africa’s reputation as an international tourism destination.

He said: “The department of home affairs is committed to managing immigration in a way that advances our national development, security and our international obligations.”

Fair enough. But why was it necessary to introduce the potentially problematic regulations in the first place, back in 2014? Then, the government ruled that foreign tourists travelling to South Africa would have to carry full, unabridged birth certificates for children as well as documentary approval of their travel.

According to David Frost, chief executive of the Southern Africa Tourism Services Association, the application of the rule in only the first year saw 13 000 people being turned away from points of embarkation. But, he added, “the real cost is people considering South Africa as a destination, coming across the requirements and then simply going to alternative destinations”.

At that time, Gigaba was one of the people closest to then-president Jacob Zuma and refused to change the regulations, despite opposition from some of his own colleagues in Cabinet.

We acknowledge the government’s commitment to security and to clamping down on trafficking of minors … but the biggest areas where these are happening are across our borders, which are either not patrolled, or at border posts where corruption helps bend regulations.

So, we wonder about the benefits of the whole exercise in the long run.

Ill thought-out restrictions like these should not be imposed in the future.