Training of local and international visa staff on the new biometric visa to be introduced as a requirement for foreign national visitors to South Africa, has commenced.
The Department of Home Affairs (DHA) says South Africa-based staff will be trained first. Tourism Update has also established that South African embassy staff in China are to undergo training shortly.
According to information received from David Hlabane, Spokesperson for DHA, training and implementation of the biometric visa will be a phased process. Requirements will include digitalised fingerprinting and facial photography.
But the DHA appears intransigent on a contentious aspect of the new visa application – that foreign nationals must apply in person. This presents difficulties for visitors who live some distance from South African embassies, consulates and visa centres, or even in countries where there are no such facilities. The condition also has implications for group travel.
In response to Tourism Update’s query on this point, the DHA said: “We cannot have a consulate in every part of every country. All countries have limited consulates for cost purposes.”
Scott Lupien, President of the 52Safari International Hunting Club in Beijing, has long experienced obstacles in visa applications for Chinese clients travelling to South Africa. He describes the ‘apply in person’ condition as “extremely bad news”. “Our clients are in Sichuan Province and it will be very difficult to get them to come to Beijing. This new regulation will kill our business to South Africa!”
He points out that while most countries are moving towards making it easier for Chinese tourists to obtain visas, SA appears to be making it more difficult. “In the six years that I've been doing this safari business, I've seen the USA, Canada and Europe all make big concessions to simplify the visa process and also grant a larger and larger percentage of visas to applicants.” Italy, he says, processes visas for Chinese tourists within 36 hours, Mozambique and Tanzania give visas on arrival, and Namibia and Zimbabwe allow tour operators to apply on clients' behalf.
Lupien accuses SA of shooting itself in the foot, claiming that his business may be forced to focus its marketing on other African destinations. “Currently, SA is our number-one destination and our clients spend tens of millions of rand there each year. But I'm afraid that this will all dry up unless we can resolve this problem.”
Local industry organisations, SATSA, Asata, Barsa, Aasa and Fair Trade Tourism, are engaged in ongoing negotiations on recent changes in visa regulations, including biometric visas, with the Departments of Home Affairs and Tourism, channelled through the Tourism Business Council of South Africa.
In a media statement on June 5 to announce the opening of countrywide visa facilitation centres in South Africa, Minister of Home Affairs, Malusi Gigaba, said a mandate had been given to VFS Global to “develop a solution for biometric intake in line with the immigration regulations”. VFS Global has been appointed to manage 11 centres in all nine provinces, all set to open this month.
