{"id":345412,"date":"2019-10-09T12:36:30","date_gmt":"2019-10-09T10:36:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=345412"},"modified":"2019-10-09T12:36:30","modified_gmt":"2019-10-09T10:36:30","slug":"we-want-the-uk-to-give-south-africans-visa-free-access-minister","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/345412\/we-want-the-uk-to-give-south-africans-visa-free-access-minister\/","title":{"rendered":"We want the UK to give South Africans visa-free access: minister"},"content":{"rendered":"

South Africans should be given visa-free access to the UK after tightening up security around its passport, says Home Affairs minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi.<\/p>\n

In an interview with 702<\/a><\/strong>, Motsoaledi said that while South African citizens were previously allowed to enter the UK visa-free, this access was revoked after a number of fraudulent incidents.<\/p>\n

“Unfortunately something happened some years back where other nationals forged our passports,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Since that time we have improved (South Africa’s passport’s security) and we think the UK must now reconsider allowing visa-free access.”<\/p>\n

Motsoaledi added that the department of home affairs is working with a number of foreign governments to allow for visa-free access but this does not guarantee reciprocal access for South Africans.<\/p>\n

He said that this reciprocity was dependent on a number of factors and was not a ‘straight-line equation’.<\/p>\n

“There are a number of considerations when giving a visa. Firstly you consider the sovereignty and security of the (applicant’s) country. Secondly, you consider the developmental needs of your own country.<\/p>\n

“Lastly you have to consider the stability and security of people within your own country.\u00a0You might find that you need people from a country but they don’t need you – you can then insist on reciprocation.”<\/p>\n

“We did not consider reciprocity when we took the decision about Qatar and Saudi Arabia. They on their own are considering reciprocating.”<\/p>\n

\n

Read: South Africa\u2019s new e-visa system is launching in November \u2013 here\u2019s what you need to know<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Department of Home Affairs is working with a number of foreign governments to allow for reciprocal visa-free access.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":326161,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-345412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=345412"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":345422,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345412\/revisions\/345422"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/326161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=345412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=345412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=345412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}