Friday, October 26, marked 'D-Day' for the SA government’s promised gazetting of the amendments to the unabridged birth certificate (UBC) regulations, as announced on September 25 at a televised media briefing on visa-related reforms.
Yet this amendment was conspicuously absent in Friday’s Government Gazette – the last issued in the month of October.
On September 25, Minister of Home Affairs Malusi Gigaba, was recorded as saying: “We will issue an international travel advisory before the end of October 2018, after consultation with the Immigration Advisory Board (IAB).”
The day after the briefing (September 26), the Department of Tourism released a statement, with Minister Derek Hanekom reiterating: “From the end of October 2018, South Africa will issue a Travel Advisory for minors not travelling with both parents. The amendment to the regulations will be gazetted by the Minister of Home Affairs for information in October 2018.”
However a source informed eTNW that Gigaba has not yet even met with the Immigration Advisory Board – a prerequisite for gazetting any regulation changes.
June Crawford, ceo of the South African Board of Airline Representatives (BARSA), said: “If the industry receives no communication whatsoever by the end of October, we will need to regroup. Small concessions are not enough. We need bold supportive decisions.”
Airlines say they are compelled to follow the law until it is changed and cannot let minors board without a UBC.
eTNW attempted to reach Gigaba and the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) to request an explanation, and an indication of when the industry could expect the amendments to be gazetted. Phones were either switched off or not answered and, at the time of publishing, all email requests for comment were ignored.
Gazetting an amendment to any regulation is required to make it official law, so until such time as this is done, the original law remains in place. Which means that parents travelling with minors will still be required to produce a UBC on request at airline immigration stations.
