Durban - The government says the “door is still open” for discussions with British authorities to have certain visa requirements waived in the ongoing visa tit-for-tat between the two countries.
That’s the word from Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba, who briefed the media on Sunday on matters affecting the government’s governance and administration cluster. He said the principle of reciprocity would remain in place until the two countries reached a decision on the matter.
Gigaba’s remarks followed the introduction of visa requirements for holders of British diplomatic and official passports this month.
This was in response to Britain’s 2010 decision that South African diplomats must apply for UK visas.
“We have said that our doors are open if the British would like us to discuss the decision we have made, but in leaving our doors open, our first prize is for the rest of the visa requirements for all South Africans to be waived by the British,” said Gigaba.
Should this happen, “that’s when the discussion with them will start”.
“For now we are implementing our principle of reciprocity, although we have targeted only diplomatic and official passport holders.
Exemption
“We maintain the exemption of ordinary passport holders from the United Kingdom and Ireland. They still can come to South Africa without having to apply for a visa,” said Gigaba.
Gigaba said last week that the government had tried to resolve the matter with British authorities by asking for exemption for South African diplomats and officials, but “those efforts were in vain”.
Gigaba also touched on the issue of unregistered Zimbabweans in South Africa.
He said the government did not have any concerns because legislation guided the department on how we treat “any foreign national whose stay in South Africa is unregulated”.
“We will deport them. We made it clear in 2010 that we were dealing with a specific category of people and the registration of those individuals closed.
“We were going to provide special permits under the Dispensation for Zimbabweans Project. Zimbabweans who were not part of that and had their applications rejected in 2010 were in South Africa as unregulated foreign nationals,” said Gigaba.
He said those who were not registered needed to apply for any of the visas provided in the immigration legislation “and if you qualify you will be granted that visa”.
The Mercury