South Africa Announces Visa Waiver to Improve Economy

South Africa has announced a visa waiver program for visitors from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and New Zealand in a bid to boost the country’s tourism sector.

The ministry of home affairs discovered that by the first quarter of the year 2019 when South Africa receives the highest number of visitors from Europe and the Middle East, the number of visitors had decreased by more than ten percent.

South African Home Affairs Minister Dr. Aaron Motsoaledi said that visitors from those four countries will not have to acquire visas when travelling to South Africa for business, conferences or just for holidays.

This comes after South Africa has gone through an economic crisis, especially in the sector of tourism, which has resulted in a decrease in the number of visitors in their country.

Dr Motsoaledi observed that South Africa’s economy is going down at an alarming rate as by the first three months of the year 2019, gross domestic product (GDP) decreasing by 3.2 percent.

Notably, the current economic crisis in South Africa has seen the rate of unemployment increase to about 29 percent in just three months.

Because of this, the South African government has resorted to visa waivers to help improve the situation, saying that the move will boost tourism, which as a result will give room for job creation and growth of the economy.

The government is said to be having plans for ensuring that the sector of tourism creates 2.1 million jobs by 2028.

South Africa has waived visa requirements for 82 out of 193 United Nations member countries and is currently in talks to have the waiver extended to Ghana, Cuba and Principe and Sao Tome.

For the four countries eligible for the South African visa waiver announced on Thursday, August 15, Dr. Motsoaledi reports that the government is in talks with them (the four countries) to see that South Africans also get fair entry requirements to those countries.

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