Major win for visas in South Africa

The Department of Home Affairs has launched the Trusted Tour Operator Scheme (TTOS), which looks set to increase tourism numbers in South Africa.

The Department said that the platform will drive increased tourism from major source markets, including India and China, via approved tour operators that can submit group applications for large tour groups from the two countries.

It said that the new process addresses a long-standing obstacle to tourism growth, where long queues, red tape and the inability to process group applications led to inefficiency in issuing visas to tourists from these countries.

Before the TTOS system was created, there were only two South African missions in China and two missions in India to service close to 3 billion people living there.

The new system ensures that tourists from India and China who use approved tour operators will no longer have to visit a mission, fill in a single form and need to stand in a queue.

Visas are expected to be sent digitally within three days.

In 2023, South Africa received only 37,000 tourists from China and 79,000 from India despite the massive populations in both countries and the large diasporas in the country.

Home Affairs said that by enhancing visa efficiency and security via the TTOS, South Africa will see major tourism growth from the two burgeoning source markets.

“The fact that Home Affairs took the TTOS from conceptualisation to implementation in less than six months demonstrates our commitment to embracing digital transformation and to playing our role as an economic enabler to create jobs,” said Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber.

“Research has shown that for every twelve new tourists attracted by TTOS, we can create one new job in South Africa.”

“This demonstrates the power of Home Affairs’ digital transformation agenda to create jobs.”

GNU praise

Amidst the spats between Government of National Unity (GNU) members over recent weeks, the DA’s Schreiber praised Ministers from other GNU members for their assistance in creating the TTOS.

“I want to thank the Minister in the Presidency, Khumbudzo Ntshaveni (ANC), as well as the Minister of Tourism, Patricia de Lille (Good), for their support in rolling out this innovative new system in record time.”

“This shows the power of collaboration through the Government of National Unity as we pursue our apex priority to grow the economy and create jobs.”

Schreiber’s praise of fellow GNU members comes amidst heightened public spats between the various parties in the “coalition” following the signing of the Expropriation Act.

President Cyril Ramaphosa signed the highly contested Expropriation Act into law, which allows the state to expropriate land without compensation, albeit under extreme circumstances.

DA Council Chairperson Helen Zille commissioned court papers to challenge the Expropriation Act in Court earlier this week.

Zille said that the law opens the door to power abuse in taking people’s property without compensation in an open-ended way.

Ramaphosa’s office said that the Expropriation Bill does not constitute land confiscation, adding that it provides a legal framework for land redistribution fairly and lawfully.

DA Federal Leader John Steenhuisen also recently said that it is not true that the act allows land to be seized by the government arbitrarily, adding that it requires fair compensation for legitimate expropriation in terms of section 25 of the Constitution.

Steenhuisen’s comments came after Donald Trump signed executive orders cutting off aid to South Africa.