Letter to the Editor: Is the government using a sledgehammer to crush an ant?

IATA notes with concern

South Africa’s new

immigration measures, which

require adults travelling with

children to carry unabridged

birth certificates.

Iata fully supports South

Africa in its laudable campaign

to combat child trafficking

but the new measures

prompt us to ask just how

big is the problem in South

Africa? Is the country dealing

with a problem of crisis

proportions? And how much of

it takes advantage of airlines

serving South Africa’s major

international airports?

Airports are not a country’s

only points of entry and exit

and, by the government’s

own admission, its land

borders are porous and it

has inadequate resources to

patrol its long coastline from

traffickers and smugglers.

The SA Police Service’s

2004-2014 crime statistics,

which categorise all significant

types of reported offences,

make no mention of child

trafficking. Can one infer

from this that the level of

incidence does not warrant

the categorisation of such

occurrences?

So is the government using

a sledgehammer to crush

an ant? Iata believes there

are better and more effective

alternative solutions worth

exploring. It is on these

burning issues that Iata and

its sister bodies in travel

and tourism have sought to

engage the DHA since last

year.

Airlines are in the business

of safely carrying people and

goods between markets.

They are neither policemen

nor immigration officers, yet

governments, including South

Africa’s, insist on passing

the buck and tasking airlines

with doing governments’

work – with no reward or

reimbursement for the

additional costs incurred

for doing so. Surely then,

governments should ensure

that everyone in the chain

is consulted on the rules,

that there is proper and

full understanding of them

and that their enforcement

measures are pragmatic and

manageable.

The effects of over-regulation

should already be apparent

to South Africa, which, in

2013 invoked a new transit

visa requirement for travellers

commuting to and from other

African countries on flights

connecting at South African

airports. The result has been

a marked movement of intraAfrican

connecting passengers

away from Johannesburg’s

OR Tambo International Airport

to Nairobi, Addis Ababa and

even Dubai, all of which offer

comprehensive connections

to African destinations with

simplified, yet still effective,

visa and immigration

processes.

In the sole meeting we were

granted with the Minister of

Home Affairs last September,

he agreed to stop the clock

on the implementation until

June 1 and to appoint a joint

government-industry task

group to research international

best practices and make

recommendations on the

new regulations and their

implementation. Its task was

also to include the preparation

of a communications strategy

and toolkit to support the

roll-out of the new systems

and processes and ensure

that accurate and consistent

information was conveyed to

potential travellers and all

other stakeholders.

For reasons unknown to us,

and despite several attempts

to maintain an open channel

with the Minister’s office,

this task group was never

appointed and none of the

tasks undertaken.

Despite these unanswered

questions, Iata has every

faith that the South African

Government is acting in the

best interests of the country

and that it will review, modify,

or, if necessary, rescind the

new measures if they do not

have the desired effect and

if they act as a handbrake on

travel, tourism and economic

growth, not just for South

Africa, which is experiencing

its weakest GDP performance

in decades, but for the entire

region.

Raphael Kuuchi

Iata vp, Afric