South Africa has relaxed its visa rules for 7 countries, removing the requirement of a visa all together.
The Department of Home Affairs has announced that new countries have been added to the list of nations that can enter South Africa visa-free.
Minister of Home Affairs, Aaron Motsoaledi made the announcement, saying that tourism will soar with this latest move.
The 7 new countries added to the list are:
– Cuba
– Ghana
– New Zealand
– Qatar
– Sao Tome and Principe
– Saudi Arabia
– United Arab Emirates
“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.”
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One big omission was Nigeria, which the minister said we would double the number of visas. China and India are two other nations the ministry is monitoring closely.
“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.
This new arrangement is not reciprocated by all the 7 countries, and negotiations will be done on country to country basis. Some however, like Ghana and Qatar already have visa-free or visa on arrival agreements with South Africa.
