The new controversial South African visa requirements have been labeled an economy killer and sparked widespread jitters in the tourism business.
Foreigners who want to visit South Africa must apply for visas in person at South African embassies to have their biometric data captured. Residents of countries who require a short-stay visa for South Africa and do not have a South African embassy in their country or city, will have to travel. Parents and guardians traveling with children, must be in possession of an unabridged birth certificate.
<div id="attachment_3789" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-3789" class="size-medium wp-image-3789" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/0000223010-300x196.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="196" />CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA &#8211; APRIL 28: Deputy Minister of Home Affairs, Fatima Chohan meets to discuss the recent xenophobic violence on April 28, 2015 in Cape Town, South Africa. The Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs hosted a meeting with Ministers of Home Affairs, Small Business Development as well as Police on the challenges of xenophobic violence and looting of foreign owned shops. (Photo by Gallo Images / Die Burger / Deon Raath)</div>
While the tourism industry cries foul, Deputy Minister of Home Affairs, Fatima Chohan, defended the new regulations. She argues that the migration laws have not been changed for 15 years and that the regulations are in line with international rules against child trafficking. An estimated 30,000 children are trafficked through South Africa each year, according to government.
“Research suggests that it will cost the South African economy 21,000 jobs and around R10 billion ($809 million). By the end of 2014‚ the number of visitors from China and Brazil had dropped 70% and 62% from the year before‚” says Beverley Schäfer‚ the spokesperson on Economic Opportunities‚ Tourism &amp; Agriculture from the opposition party, the Democratic Alliance.
South Africa began implementing new immigration regulations in May 2014. From May to December, South Africa lost 66,000 foreign tourists due to changes in the immigration regulations.
The Association of Southern African Travel Agents (ASATA) has estimated the new rules will hit 15% of tourists.
“In 2014, South Africa received 9.55 million foreign overnight tourists, an increase of 7,5 percent over that recorded in 2013. Demand from all overseas markets steadily dissipated throughout the year, coming off highs of 8,6 percent in the first four months of the year to a decline of 1,2 percent in the last four months. Assuming a 20 percent drop in demand from the family market will result in a direct, indirect and induced loss to the South African economy of at least R10 billion ($809 million) per annum and potential job losses of around 24,000,” says ASATA.
The damage to the South African economy so far is R2.6 billion ($210 million) and a threat to more than 5,800 jobs, it says. In the future, ASATA warns of the loss of 100,000 tourists with R1.4 billion ($113 million). This translates to a net loss to the GDP of around R4.1 billion ($331 million) and 9,300 jobs.
Despite South Africa’s economy facing another hit, the hospitality sector is poised for further growth in the next five years in the wake of a number of inbound travelers into the African continent, according to a report issued by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in June. The hotel industry in 2014 benefited from an increase in foreign visitors and rising room rates. The new visa regulations, could scupper this.
“Many in the industry fear that international tourists will not consider South Africa as a destination, which already has a number of issues and concerns despite being a cheap destination. International visitors especially those from India or China or those traveling with families may chose a destination where entry requirements are less onerous,” says Nikki Forster, a director and partner at PwC.
South Africa’s Minister of Tourism, Derek Hanekom, admits tourism has been hit. At the World Economic Forum on Africa he hinted that there would be a review.
“The current requirements [are] up for discussion right now as we speak, so it is not engraved in stone… We are in very intense discussions on this and I think we will find each other and find the right balance between legitimate defending, legitimate interests of the state and defending your national security interests and not putting unnecessary requirements on people wanting to travel to South Africa,” he said.
The Department of Tourism has since stated there will not be a review, but that talks about implementation will continue. The ministerial cabinet has resolved to set up a team of ministers to discuss and engage with any concerns to address the unintended consequences of the regulations.
With reports that Air China has cancelled the launch of direct flights to South Africa over the regulations, many of the continent’s finest resorts fear the threat of too much room at the inn.

The $809-Million  Question

Apaltry rate of investment in infrastructure has dimmed the otherwise bright future for our continent.
Decades of self-serving economic policies, political agendas and some may say cynical or ‘feel good’ aid flows to Africa clearly have not delivered much. Yet, there is a new sense of enthusiasm and positive energy from Africa. The new generation of Africans is seizing the future.
The people are moving and the opportunities are endless for Africans. Entrepreneurs from around the world are engaged, but the picture has flaws; the story is oversimplified. The basic needs are still missing. Where are the ports and harbours, railways, roads, power plants and electrical and water distribution to support growth?
It is Africa’s diversity that makes it so rich, but it is also this diversity that remains the biggest hurdle to the growth that is eagerly expected.
Africa comprises 53 diverse countries – historically impacted by colonial era and cold war foreign ideologies; diverse languages, inefficient bureaucracy, nationalist inward-looking focus and economic protectionism. The continent often lacks experience when it comes to major infrastructure delivery and attracting private sector or foreign development investment.
Enter the World Economic Forum (WEF) and many other NGOs and Develop Finance Institutions (DFIs) who seek to usher in a better world.
WEF is a private institution respected as an influencer and incubator in helping the world understand the future.
The focus on Africa, in the last decade, has done good and raised the economic profile of the continent around the world.
WEF has no implementation resources or infrastructure delivery capacity but are good at investigation, evaluation and think-tanking. Ideas may abound but when does planning turn into delivery? Many highly qualified professionals with great ideas meet annually with apparently limited visible progress when it comes to the hardware on the ground.
In 2013, WEF stated that “with an expected annual growth of 5 percent in 2012-2013, sub-Saharan Africa continues its transformative journey from a developing continent to a hub of global growth. According to the World Bank, almost half of Africa’s countries have attained middle-income status. At the same time, the continent’s positive outlook is threatened by fluctuating commodity prices, rising inequality and youth unemployment.”
At that session, much time was spent on the identification of target and priority infrastructure projects and 51 were shortlisted. The work done on the projects list was commendable, but there were crucial missing factors preventing the realization of the funding and construction of these projects.
The ability to attract large scale DFI funding to the extent required, which is put at $75 billion by 2040, is still elusive due to three factors: the absence of upfront ‘at risk’ funding of early project feasibility studies that can attract full project funding from private, public and DFI sources; a lack of political will and technical knowhow.
At this year’s forum, it’s encouraging to see all three of these key factors firmly on the agenda. There is a realization of the need to have a regional integrated view and that non-returnable funds are made available, to enable project preparation to be effective which will lead to funding and implementation.
My birthplace in Zimbabwe and my own personal African infrastructure adventure, over the last 30 something years, has given me valuable first-hand experience of the immensely difficult task of getting major projects through to implementation, both from a private and public sector perspective.
My personal experience with WEF goes back to the event in Cape Town in 2010. I attended with a special interest in the economic growth drivers and capacity building within Africa’s infrastructure.
In a number of DFI forums, my colleagues and I stressed that while projects may be much needed, project financing funds will not flow unless there were crucial additional funds made available that paid for the early detailed feasibility studies, including the designs and accurate technical scoping, budgeting and funding mechanisms and ultimately project management.
At last, we may be seeing the DFIs and the many agencies seeking infrastructure solutions for Africa coming together to get the African vision moving.
WEF would have thus played a strategic role in unlocking the potential. Africa is waiting.

Tag: Policies

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA

The $809-Million Question

Africa Is Building At Last