SA, Mozambique waive visas
Clive Ndou
19 April 2005
Thousands of Mozambicans who shop and do business in South Africa will no longer be required to produce visas at border gates.
SA and Mozambique signed a visa waiver agreement on Friday which allows citizens of either country to stay in the other other country for up to 30 days without a visa.
Speaking at the launch of the National Immigration Branch (NIB) in Cape Town last week, Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula said the agreement aimed to encourage legal rather than illegal entry into South Africa, and was part of a broader initiative to restore the dignity of African people.
South Africa currently has visa waiver agreements with Namibia, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Namibia, Swaziland and Zambia, and is busy negotiating such an agreement with Zimbabwe.
"We are refining our policies to ensure that people who need to come into our country can do so conveniently", Mapisa-Nqakula said. "However, those who choose to
do so through illegal means will face the full strength of the law."
The announcement comes against the backdrop of a perceived xenophobic attitude by South African immigration officials towards Mozambicans entering the country.
Every month, thousands of Mozambicans enter the country for various reasons. The scale of abuse they allegedly suffer at the hands of officials has at times been a source of embarrassment for the SA government.
President Thabo Mbeki, who was present at the launch of the NIB, expressed delight with the new developments.
"As a South African I found it embarrassing that our government required Mozambicans coming into the country not only to possess a visa but to also pay for that visa in US dollars", Mbeki said.
"This imposed an intolerable hardship on Mozambican people, because lots of them shop in South Africa. Moreover, Mozambicans have been working in this country for over a century."
Source: BuaNews
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