7 New countries can now visit South Africa visa-free

“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.”

The following countries will be able to enter South Africa without a visa:

• Qatar
• United Arab Emirates
• New Zealand
• Saudi Arabia
• Cuba
• Ghana
• Sao Tome
• Principe

The minister said that his office will immediately enter into discussions with the countries about how a visa-free regime will work. He also said that “homework” still needs to be done for 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,” he said.

Deputy minister of Home Affairs, Njabulo Nzuza also said that the department is moving forward with the implementation of the country’s e-Visa regime.

“This regime will place technology at the centre of our operations by making it easy, yet secure, to enter South Africa,” he said.
The Department of Home Affairs anticipates that South Africa’s new eVisa system will launch in November 2019

Source: BusinessTech