Western Cape Provincial MEC for Economic Opportunities, Alan Winde, briefed the Western Cape Provincial Parliament on the impact of the visa regulations. The Standing Committee on Economic Opportunities, Tourism and Agriculture had raised concerns around the effect of the laws on the Western Cape’s key sectors and requested a status report from Minister Winde. Project Khulisa, the Western Cape’s growth strategy, has identified national government's restrictive visa regulations as one of the key challenges to growing the province’s R17 billion tourism sector. Project Khulisa has shown that under a high-growth scenario, the economic contribution of the tourism sector has the potential to increase to up to R28 billion by 2019. Under this same scenario, it could add up to 100 000 formal jobs. Currently, 204 000 residents are employed in the sector.

1. 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

2. 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;

3. • 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.

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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.

7. 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