Despite on-going discussions between the South African and UK governments regarding visa requirements for SA travellers to the UK, no progress has been made in negotiations.
The UK visa requirement for South Africans was one of the major issues on the agenda of the 10th SA-UK Bilateral Forum, held in Cape Town on September 10.
The forum highlighted the fact that the South African government had tightened control over the issuing of passports, while British Foreign Secretary, William Hague, admitted progress had been made in this area. However, he made no reference to changes of the requirement.
Minister of International Relations and Cooperation in South Africa, Maite Nkoane-Mashabane, said there was an urgent need to address the challenge posed by the current visa regime. She pointed out that there was an increasing flow of people between the countries, which formed a significant trend in their relations.
Meanwhile, the UK government has made changes to its Immigration Rules, including allowing tourists and business visitors to participate in study where it is not the main purpose of their visit, expanding the activities a business visitor can do in the UK, and removing the prospective student route visa. These will come into effect on October 1.
