SA takes the bold step to scrap visas for Africans

Many countries may have decided to drag their feet in backing the African Union’s visa-free travel proposal because of the various challenges for security and economy, but South Africa has decided to take the lead by deciding to work towards allowing all African citizens to enter the country without visas.

But here is the catch: It will be a priviledge first for only “trusted travellers” like diplomats, officials, academics, business people and students to benefit.

According to media reports, South Africa’s Department of Home Affairs recently outlined the steps that will be taken towards scrapping visa requirements in its latest White Paper on International Migration, which was adopted by the country’s cabinet six weeks ago but not made public yet.

The move is in line with the AU’s 2063 Agenda, which contains plans for a common visa policy with three primary components: visa-on-arrival for all African nationals, mandatory granting of a minimum 30-day visa for African citizens visiting any African country by 2018, and the ambitious goal of a single, continental passport by 2020.

But challenges of implementing the plan include associated risks of widespread economic migration, the movement of illegal goods, cross-border terrorism, and the issue of stateless individuals. Nevertheless, significant progress has been made - regionally and nationally - with benefits that demonstrate the effectiveness of the policy in terms of stimulating economic growth.

Former AU Commission chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, who is tipped to contest the South African presidency next year, championed the agenda, and called for the scrapping of visa requirements for all African citizens travelling on the continent by 2018 based on the concept of the African Renaissance.

The African passport was launched with great ceremony by Dlamini-Zuma and Rwandan President Paul Kagame at last year’s AU summit in Kigali, in Rwanda.

According to the White Paper, South Africa “fully supports the vision of an Africa where its citizens can move more freely across national borders, where intra-Africa trade is encouraged and there is greater integration and development of the African continent”.

It said the current status was untenable. “For instance, on average Africans need visas to travel to 55 per cent of other African countries. They can get visas on arrival in only 25 per cent of other countries. Finally, they do not need a visa to travel to just 20 per cent of other countries on the continent.”

Security-based approach

But the White Paper, which moves South Africa’s approach to immigration from a purely administrative one to a security-based approach, warns that the scrapping of visas needs to happen with caution. The country’s risk-based approach “advocates for an incremental removal of migration formalities for frequent and trusted travellers including diplomats, officials, academics, business persons, students, etc.”

The policy is envisaged as follows: African citizens can enter South Africa visa-free where there are reciprocal agreements. Visas will only be needed when there are risks of foreign nationals overstaying, security risks like organised crime, terrorism and political instability, civil registration risks, i.e. fraud by foreign governments in issuing documents or an unable or unwillingness to identify their nationals when requested, and for countries “with a high number of nationals who abuse the asylum system”.

One of the countries identified elsewhere in the document as doing such is Zimbabwe.

Key elements of the visa-free regime would be visa-free entry for visits up to 90 days, recognition of visas for third parties, for example regional visas, agreed standards on immigration and border management, agreed standards on civil registration and “sophisticated, real-time risk management, information and intelligence sharing”.

Where visas are required “South Africa should make it as easy as possible for bona fide travellers to enter South Africa”, by standardising and expanding the use of long-term, multiple-entry visas for frequent travellers, business people and academics, according to the White Paper.

A list will be developed of countries whose visa adjudication systems are trusted and recognised by South Africa, and technology will be used to establish trusted traveller schemes.

At regional level, South Africa “should continue to advocate for a free movement of African citizens,” the paper states.

It also says, however, that there has been a large influx of semiskilled and unskilled economic migrants who couldn’t get visas and permits through the “mainstream immigration regime”.

These had some negative consequences, such as the asylum seeker management system being “abused and overwhelmed by economic migrants”, and then these migrants, and by extension also South African workers, being abused by “some unscrupulous South African employers”.

There has also been “increased trade in false documentation and petty corruption by police and immigration enforcement officials”, and social cohesion has suffered, “as all citizens assume that all migrants from the rest of Africa are irregular and undesirable”.

Additional information from polity.org.za and a Huffington report by Michelle DeFreese