South African E-Visa Service Lags Behind Other African Countries

South Africa Dept of Home Affairs
(file photo).
20 December 2022
Daily Maverick (Johannesburg)
By Georgina Crouth

The Africa Visa Openness Index, a joint initiative of the African Development Bank and the African Union Commission, has tracked visa regimens in Africa since 2016. SA is ranked 33rd out of 54 African countries, which is no surprise as its online system is far from user-friendly.

Ten months after President Cyril Ramaphosa announced the launch of e-Visas for 14 countries, including China, India, Kenya and Nigeria, to streamline and modernise the visa application process, South Africa is trailing behind other African countries.

The e-Visa was envisaged to enable visitors to apply and pay online for a visa from their home country, without visiting the SA Mission.

The Africa Visa Openness Index, a joint initiative of the African Development Bank and the African Union Commission, has tracked visa regimens in Africa since 2016.

The latest index shows many countries have returned to pre-pandemic levels of visa openness. For each country, it calculates the number of countries whose citizens must obtain visas before travelling, the countries whose citizens may obtain a visa upon arrival, and those whose citizens do not need a visa to enter. The countries are then assigned a visa openness score and ranked, on a scale of 0...

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