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Cape Town - Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba has said the Department of Home Affairs will not go back on a decision to implement new visa requirements, set to come into effect on 1 June 2015.
iAfrica reports home affairs has begun the process by converting over half a million abridged birth certificates.
Various stakeholders within the travel and tourism industry have expressed concern about the effect the new visa regulations, which requires all parents entering South Africa to provide an unabridged birth certificate of all travelling children, detailing the child's father and mother. This applies even when both parents are travelling with their children.
According to the report, Gigaba says his priority is the safety of children and that because there is a lot of crime, “South Africa should never relent in protecting children”.
But the upcoming visa rules have sparked heated debate both in parliament and among key tourism stakeholders who are anticipating a negative impact from these rules.
Last week, DA MP James Vos said he will be attending the Home Affairs Portfolio Committee being held on Tuesday to ask for a special task team to review the visa regulations.
Vos said in a statement that President Zuma had promised to prioritise the review in his 2015 State of the Nation address (SONA) “but has not yet delivered on his commitment”.
In his SONA speech Zuma said the review of visa regulations would be “to strike a balance between national security and growth in tourism”.
Department of Home Affairs Spokesperson Mayihlome Tshwete told traveller24 the department is in the process of holding roundtable discussions with key tourism stakeholders but has yet to confirm who the stakeholders are and if there had been any key outcomes to date.
