Travel insiders agree that the practice of issuing visas is a hindrance to trade and tourism. Yet more than 20 African countries do not allow visa-free travel for SA passport holders.
The SADC says it is making progress in its ambitions of having a unified visa system for the region, but it’s common knowledge that initiatives needing diplomatic agreement across the entire continent move at a glacial pace. For example, the African Union has said it estimates the process of creating a single passport for the entire AU would take around 42 years to implement, see here.
A travel consultant based in the Eastern Cape told Travel News that the East and West African countries her clients go to require SA passport holders to apply for visas before they travel. “I have a corporate client that travels frequently to Uganda, Ethiopia, Senegal and Liberia. They are investing heavily and yet all those countries require them to obtain visas. I have to apply for three or four visas to enable my clients to travel for a short period of time. Trips into Africa have become time-consuming and challenging, I don’t understand why Africans have to apply for visas when they are going into Africa – most European countries have agreements and allow access to EU passport holders.”
In an interview with Travel News, Aaron Munetsi, CEO of the Airlines Association of Southern Africa said the requirement for visas for African passport holders travelling to African countries had been highlighted as one of the main impediments to the economic growth of the continent.
Said Munetsi: “The Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) which is one of the AU’s flagship projects, makes it very clear that one of the outcomes of the implementation of visa-free travel will be the free movement of people and goods throughout Africa; 37 AU member countries have signed up for SAATM and that should result in the eradication of the requirement for visas for fellow Africans.”
Already, within the SADC, visa requirements have been lifted completely – travel to any of the 18 member states of the SADC is visa-free and visas have been removed between countries such as Kenya and South Africa on a bilateral basis.
Munetsi explained that the reality was that countries moved at different speeds, implementation-wise
“However, the historical element of the visa regime cannot be ignored. That is one of the reasons for the continuation of visa requirements for Africans travelling to other African countries.
“The principle of reciprocity is still in effect in that if one country requires visas from the other country, then the same applies for its own citizens travelling to the other country. For example, Ethiopia, Ghana and Côte de Ivoire nationals require visas to travel to South Africa. As reciprocity implies, South African passport holders require visas to travel to these countries.”
Said Munetsi “I am confident that it is now just a matter of time before the majority if not all African countries will remove the requirements for visas for their fellow Africans. There is also an encouraging development where more and more countries are now facilitating visas-on-arrival, or eVisas. That is not the ideal outcome, but it is a step in the right direction.
“Aasa is actively re-engaging with the various countries and stakeholders to lobby and advocate for the complete removal of visa requirements for Africans,” said Munetsi.
