South Africa Grants Visa-Free Access to These Four Countries

If you're traveling from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and New Zealand, you will no longer require a visa to visit South Africa for holidays, conferencing or business meetings, starting from Thursday, 22nd August, 2019.

Home affairs minister Aaron Motsoaledi said this during his budget speech recently, and they are four of seven, he stated.

He further explained that the department would implement visa waivers for Ghana, Cuba, and Sao Tome and Principe after negotiations with these countries had been concluded. He said the department was scheduled to complete these negotiations by August ending and the implementation would follow soon thereafter.

"We took this decision (to waive visa requirements) unilaterally but we are engaging these countries to see how they can relax entry requirements for our citizens. I am glad to say that Qatar has already waived visa requirements for South Africans and this will enable our people to attend Qatar's Fifa World Cup 2022 easier," Motsoaledi said.

At the heart of South Africa's foreign policy is to fastrack the economy, facilitate the creation of jobs and securing the country's borders.

"Home affairs has an important contribution to make in growing tourism and by extension growing the economy and creating jobs. We are constantly reviewing our operations to ensure that we relax entry requirements without compromising our responsibility towards the safety and security of our citizens," Motsoaledi said.

82 of the 193 countries of the UN have Visa-free access to South Africa. Eighteen of the countries enjoying a visa-free status in South Africa were on the continent with all Southern African Development Community countries enjoying this status, except for the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Motsoaledi said those countries enjoying the visa-free status were among the nations accounting for the majority of international tourists to SA from the continent, Europe and the Americas.

Header Image Credit: businesstech.co.za