South Africa’s Department of Home Affairs has announced that it will launch a new E-Visa system in November 2019.
The department said the new regime will place technology at the centre of our operations by making it easy, yet secure, to enter South Africa.
The e-Visa system is also expected to allow tourists and visitors to South African apply for their visas online.
Applications will processed while the prospective visitors “sit at the comfort of their own home”.
South Africa has however expanded the list of countries whose citizens can enter South Africa visa-free.
Citizens of Qatar, United Arab Emirates, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Cuba, Ghana, Sao Tome and Principe are the latest expected to enjoy visa-free entry into South Africa.
Minister of Home Affairs, Aaron Motsoaledi had said on Wednesday that “Tourism will soar if we relax visa requirements for entry into South Africa. We know that Tourism is very important for job creation.”
He said “Out of the 193 countries who are member states of the United Nations, the Department has granted visa-free status to 75 countries. Of these 16 are in our continent and are SADC members and 59 are from all over the world.”
South Africa will now begin discussions with the names countries due to enjoy visa-free on how the regime will work.
South Africa is however still in process of working on extending such visa-free regimes to countries like China, India and Nigeria.
“While we are busy tackling the matter of the three countries, we shall this financial year increase two and a half times the number of people who work for Home Affairs to process visas in both China and India. We shall double the number of people who process visas to our country in Nigeria,” Motsoaledi said.
Source: Africafeeds.com
