80 st George’s Mall, Waldorf Building Cape Town PO Box 979, Cape Town, 8000 tel: +27 483 9415 fax: +27 21 483 4892 www.westerncape.go.v.za

RESPONSE TO CONCERNS ON THE SOUTH AFRICAN VISA REGULATIONS RAISED BY

BEVERLEY SCHÄFER, CHAIR, STANDING COMMITTEE: ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES,

TOURISM AND AGRICULTURE

28 JULY 2015

1. Various media statements indicate that the Red Tape Reduction Unit has been

actively dealing with queries and challenges around visa regulations. What type of

queries has this unit received and how has the department handled the queries?

The visa regulations were implemented by the National Department of Home

Affairs in May 2014.

The Western Cape Government’s Red Tape Reduction Unit has been actively

involved in assisting residents, businesses and international travellers with

blockages related to the regulations.

Since August 2014 the Red Tape Reduction Unit (RTRU) has received several cases

relating to problems experienced by businesses and individuals regarding some

aspect of the new immigration regulations. The most common problems

experienced relate to the following:

• Lack of feedback on long-outstanding applications for temporary

and permanent residency,

• The requirement to travel to a SA foreign mission for biometrics (finger

print scanning) when making an application for a visa. This can result

in visitors having to travel over long distances, e.g., to one of only 2

VFS centres in China, or often to another neighbouring or nearby

country, e.g., from Lithuania to Sweden;

• Delays in processing visa applications (mostly in respect of foreign

businessespeople, but also i.r.o. spouses and children);

• Refusal by the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) to issue visas to

prospective students of SA language schools, requiring such schools to

be registered as higher education institutions with the Department of

Higher Education, despite that department advising that that is not a

requirement;

• Refusal of scarce skills visa applications, despite well-motivated and

demonstrated lack of the skills concerned, as supported / certified by

the DTI and the Department of Labour; and

• The unabridged birth certificate requirement being misinterpreted by

DHA or the Department of International Relations and Cooperation

(DIRCO) DIRCO (consular) staff members, and hence refusing to issue

visas to children in circumstances where their passports should have

been accepted as an “equivalent document”.

2. Has the Western Cape experienced challenges of visa regulations regarding other

sectors of the regional economy, other than Tourism? How has your office been

able to deal with these challenges?

The visa regulations have impacted businesses in a range of sectors.

Businesses in other sectors of the economy that have also been affected by the

new immigration relations are:

• The Language Schools – services sector

• Desert Diamond Fishing – primary production (fishing)

• Oil and gas sector - During discussions with the South African Oil and

Gas Alliance, the industry body also indicated that the new immigration

regulations pose a threat to the industry, especially in terms of corporate

visas.

3. You recently reported in the media how a major hotel had already expected

operations to be down by over 20 000 bed nights, and made comment on the fact

that Air China postponed direct flights to South Africa. How have you as Minister

been able to deal with stakeholders such as these to restore confidence in the

Western Cape as a preferred destination of choice?

We are in constant communication with the public. The real issue here is that this matter requires national intervention.

That is why we continue to lobby hard for a change in these regulations.

According to the Tourism Business Council of South Africa’s Tourism Business Index:

2nd Quarter 2015, which was released last week, the sector performed

“considerably lower than expected”. Projections for the next quarter are not

promising. Figures released by Statistics South Africa in June, showed a marked

decline in tourism arrivals from our BRICS partners.

The visa regulations are a major factor in these decreases. There is clear economic

research which illustrates the devastating effect of these laws and we need

national to act as a matter of urgency.

4. How has the introduction of the Unabridged Birth Certificate (UBC) further impacted

on regional tourism of the Western Cape?

This requirement only came into effect on 1 June and we will continue to monitor

its impact on tourism.

The RTRU has however already had a case where the application for a UBC has

been problematic, relating to the tour group from India. In that case the problem

arose due to inefficiencies in the DHA offices/system.

The DHA spokesperson, Mayihlome Tshwete, on 13 June stated that alternative

documents will be acceptable for the purpose of establishing the identity of

parents of a travelling child. This is where countries endorsed particulars of parents

in the child’s passport or other official identification document.

It is also no longer a requirement that UBC’s or equivalent documents need to be

translated. This may solve some of the problems experienced by inbound

travellers, but South African citizens travelling abroad with their children will still

have to apply for UBCs.

5. Have capacity constraints within the various Home Affairs offices across the

Western Cape, an issue clearly highlighted in the report, further impacted on the

challenges around visa regulations?

Capacity in the Western Cape is a problem. The key issue, however, is related to

the DHA’s centralisation initiative and the contracting of Visa Facilitation Services

(VFS) as the DHA’s receiving agent for visas.

This has resulted in provincial officers and the DHA’s call centre in Pretoria no

longer having access to the visa query system.

These staff are now unable to speedily provide updates on pending applications.

Offices like the RTRU have to rely on personal contacts or escalation to top

management to elicit responses.

6. Further to your press releases the red tape unit was conducting a study comparing

our visa regulations to those of other countries. What is the status of this study?

The research project is still underway. The RTRU have reviewed statistics of foreign

arrivals, as tracked by StatsSA, over a period of 3 years, from January 2012 to

January 2015.

The study identifies and analyse the trends, and what may have influenced and/or

determined such trends. Possible factors which could influence the figures include

economic conditions abroad, Ebola, the implementation of more stringent visa

regulations, and possible relaxation of visa regulations in other countries. It is

expected that the preliminary report on the research will be ready for review later

this month.

7. The Minister has indicated that the Red Tape Reduction Unit has devised a set of

proposals which, if implemented, would lessen the negative impact of these rules.

Exactly what type of proposals are these?

Proposals made by the RTRU to be considered in order to improve the current

application processes and capacity issues at DHA are:

• Creating the required capacity and improving efficiency at DHA offices to

ensure that processes are finalised and documents issued timeously;

• Ensuring that DHA officials understand the legislation and regulations to

minimise the possibility of misinterpretation (such as the language school

case and declaring tourists undesirable);

• Consider offering visas on arrival, as countries such as Bolivia, Ethiopia and

Rwanda are doing;

• Consider provision for an electronic visa application system, where tourist

can apply for visas online instead of having to apply at a South African

embassy in person;

• Consider collecting biometric data on arrival at airports, instead of travellers

having to travel sometimes to a neighbouring country for fingerprints to be

taken;

• Consider not requiring biometric visas from countries where we seek to grow

tourism, as Australia does; and

• A balance should be found between preventing child trafficking, and

growing the economy through tourism and investment, and thereby

creating income and jobs.

• A full RIA to be conducted on the regulations, and the proposed changes.

8. In terms of a Western Cape Provincial Cabinet resolution, cabinet resolved the

following: (on your website)

(a) Notes the concept of Regulatory Impact Assessments (RIAs)

(b) Approves the investigation and implementation of RIAs in the Western

Cape Province.

(c) Mandates officials from Legal Services, DEDAT AND Treasury to form a joint-

task team to workshop the proposed RIA process.

(d) Mandates the task team to report back to Cabinet with its

findings/recommendations. How far is the above process?

The RTRU has developed the Guidelines for the implementation of RIAs in the

province, as well as the implementation Framework. During the 2014/2015

financial year the unit conducted high-level engagements with all provincial

heads of department, the management of most of the municipalities in the

province and the Monitoring and Evaluation Unit in the Presidency (as instructed

by the Provincial Top Management). The unit is now in a position to make final

recommendations to the provincial Cabinet on whether (and how) to implement

RIAs in the province. One issue that needs to be discussed is the fact that the

national government has in the interim decided to abandon RIA in favour of socio-

economic impact assessment (SEIA), which it claims is a more inclusive approach

that is better suited to give effect to, and monitor the achievement of,

government’s strategic objectives. Cabinet’s guidance will be sought in this

regard.

A meeting has been confirmed between the RTRU, the WC Director General and

other senior officials to discuss the proposal on the Institutionalization of RIA in the

Western Cape, after which it will be officially set on route to provincial Cabinet.

ENDS