African passport joke and the agony of getting a SA visa

South Africa fails dismally at keeping the customers from the continent who have much goodwill for the country and save all year to spend and give themselves a great holiday. PHOTO | FILE

What you need to know:

  • Levi, whom I have heard defending South Africa and is, therefore, one of the best ambassadors for the country, having studied there, has decided he will never again bother to apply for a visa to South Africa.
  • If he needs a beach holiday out of Kenya with his family, he will opt for the Seychelles, where all he needs is his passport and Yellow Fever certificate on entry. South Africa loses.
  • We fail dismally at keeping the customers from the continent who have much goodwill for the country and save all year to spend and give themselves a great holiday.

From July 10 to 18, the joke of a document called the African Union passport will be revealed to us as African heads of state make their way to another talk shop in a building gifted us by the Chinese in Addis Ababa.

The leaders, who have made it difficult for Africans to travel within Africa, will tell us how it will create ease of travel even as they will not pronounce the actual date of the passport rollout to the mwananchi.

Among these leaders will certainly be my head of state, President Jacob Zuma. And likely to be with him, because the passport will be shown, South African Home Affairs minister Malusi Gigaba.

If he is there, I hope he knows just what a difficult climb it is for many other Africans who tick all the seemingly right boxes to get a visa to South Africa. Nightmare stories abound. For lack of word space, I shall share two examples (and if he asks me, I am happy to give more).

I have a Kenyan friend who studied at the University of Pretoria some 20 years ago. Earlier this year, the guys that he studied with agreed that they would have a reunion. He received the invitation, complete with identification card copy and bank statement.

HOLIDAY OPTIONS

Levi also attached his ticket and his departure date was the 21st of May, all this done timeously. Despite having all the documents, he had to revisit the Visa Application Centre (VAC) because they would not receive the paperwork without some document that was NOT among the documents required.

He duly brought it and finally received it. On getting his documents back, he noted that inside was written ‘to depart on or before 20th May.’ This despite the fact that he had the ticket there. He went back in and explained the anomaly.

This is where it got interesting. VAC informed him that he had to reapply. He forfeited the trip to South Africa. Levi, whom I have heard defending South Africa and is, therefore, one of the best ambassadors for the country, having studied there, has decided he will never again bother to apply for a visa to South Africa.

If he needs a beach holiday out of Kenya with his family, he will opt for the Seychelles, where all he needs is his passport and Yellow Fever certificate on entry. South Africa loses.

A second and more personal one relates to my spouse. Spouse, son and I are about to embark on a trip. The only person who will require a visa is my spouse. I checked requirements with an embassy official because we have had problems with the VAC in the past.

I was informed that as a spouse, I could write an invitation letter, attach my South African ID, our marriage certificate and a bank statement. I did. Spouse went to drop off the paperwork.

Things were not as cut and dried. He was informed that he could not be invited by me as I am a Kenyan resident and he therefore needed an invite from someone staying in South Africa.

Now, I do not know about you all but the idea that, having proved I will be with him, my partner cannot go to my shags with our son and me unless my 90-something year-old-grandmother sends him an invite does not make any sense.

So we reverted to calling the official again, who double-checked our documents (nothing missing) and told partner to specifically go to the VAC. One wonders what happens to the South African woman or man married to a Kenyan passport holder who does not know anyone in the High Commission.

DISMAL FAILURE

I know companies and non-governmental organisations in Kenya and elsewhere that used to go to South Africa but who now do their retreats and workshops elsewhere because the South African visa is so hard to attain for their employees.

As South Africans, we know much about the Sho’t Left Challenge promoting domestic tourism, and we are big on marketing ourselves to tourists internationally.

But we fail dismally at keeping the customers from the continent who have much goodwill for the country and save all year to spend and give themselves a great holiday. And because they are woke and cannot be bothered anymore, they talk with their feet and go elsewhere.

You wonder why South Africa is no longer the top economy? This could be one of the factors.

Since none of us are holding our breath regarding the African Union passport, maybe AU member nations like South Africa should just start by making their restrictions easier for fellow Africans to give our economy the tourism money that they are giving to Dubai.