South Africa’s latest own-goal
The Western Cape government says that South Africa continues to lose vital skills and tourism opportunities thanks to the government dithering on introducing new visa types – and missing its own deadlines to do so.
The Minister of Home Affairs, Aaron Motsoaledi, confirmed in a letter to the Western Cape Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Opportunities and Tourism, that his department has missed its own deadline to introduce the Remote Working Visa in South Africa by the end of June this year.
According to the Western Cape government, this means that it has now been 527 days “and counting” since President Ramaphosa first announced the intention to introduce the visas in his 2022 State of the Nation Address.
“Remote workers, or Digital Nomads, are people who have jobs elsewhere in the world, who, because of remote working options, would prefer to conduct this work and spend their foreign earnings in our beautiful destination,” the provincial government said.
“This means that the introduction of a remote Working Visa is a clear win-win solution to boost long-stay tourism in the Western Cape and South Africa and is very much in line with South Africa Tourism’s drive to get tourists to stay longer.”
The WC government said that the delay in introducing this visa means that South Africa and the Western Cape continue to lose digital nomads to competitor destinations, such as Namibia, which has moved quickly and urgently to attract this new market.
“While minister Motsoaledi attributes the delay to the need to amend the Immigration Act, the Western Cape Government’s constructive proposal to the Department of Home Affairs – first submitted May 2021 and again in September 2022 – sets out clear recommendations that would enable the introduction of this visa within the existing legal framework, through amendments to Immigration Act 13 of 2002 regulations – without needing to amend the Immigration Act,” the province said.
“There is a clear proposal on how to swiftly introduce a remote work visa, and the continued failure to introduce this category is costing our economy and compromising job creation, at a time when we should be doing all we can to grow and support sectors that have shown resilience and significant job-creating potential, such as tourism.”
Visa chaos
However, while the Western Cape continues its push for new visa types, the Department of Home Affairs is already struggling with the visa types that do exist.
Delays in processing business and critical skill visas have repeatedly been flagged as a huge issue for businesses operating in the country. Most recently, close to 40 CEOs and representatives from some of Europe’s biggest multinationals flagged visa backlogs and delays as one of the biggest issues stymying further investments into the country.
Earlier this year, Motsoaledi noted that Home Affairs was dealing with a backlog of over 60,000 visas, which he said would only be cleared by the middle of 2024.
While the government has tried to assure businesses and foreign investors that it is working to cut red tape and reduce hurdles to getting into the country to do business, this is not yet translating into a positive response.
Read: International CEOs warn about critical issues in South Africa
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