South Africa’s Minister of Tourism, Lindiwe Sisulu has admitted that the country had experienced technical difficulties in its visa processes transiting from paper system to an automated one.
According to thebharatexpressnews.com, Sisulu the implementation of e-visas to facilitate travel to the country has been disrupted causing a huge backlog.
“We continue to advocate for solutions in the areas that support and enable aviation, such as visa facilitation. Significant work has been done by the Ministry of Interior as an industry partner and most recently the roll-out of e-visa in several countries, including seven African countries, has been implemented,” Sisulu said at the 52nd Annual General Meeting of the Airlines Association of Southern Africa (AASA) that took place near Kleinmond.
“Yes, we have a problem with our visa system and a lot of work still needs to be done regarding the ability to implement [more] e-visa. There have been many discussions about the inefficiency of our visa system and we have passed a resolution to follow intercontinental trends. However, we have problems.”
She acknowledged that many complaints have been received from SA’s neighboring countries about the time it takes to obtain visas.
“We have made a commitment to address the e-visa issue as soon as possible, but the backlog is huge. Just converting what we have on paper to become automated takes a lot of time. We are sorry that we are lagging behind. Is a matter of technology and backwardness,” Sisulu told TBEN Business on the sidelines of the meeting.
She applauded Zambia for the recent announcement of a visa waiver for tourists from several overseas markets, many of which are major source markets for most destinations in the South African region.
“Visa easing is an incentive for integrated marketing of the region. But we need to do more than just advocate,” Sisulu said.
Aaron Munetsi, CEO of AASA, stressed the importance of government consultations with the airline industry before making policy decisions.
“As we have seen during the pandemic, governments often make the right noises but fail to take appropriate action or support,” he said.
Examples he gave of how data-based solutions can help airlines and airports become more competitive in customer experience include contactless biometric scanners, e-passports, e-visas and e-waybills.
“Governments promise to cut red tape to become more business-friendly, but these are some of the low-hanging fruits that will smother the flow of legitimate people and goods between and between markets. By providing these positive travel and trading experiences, we will become more competitive and attractive, but also crucially important as destinations and markets for investment, tourism and trade,” said Munetsi.
