Home Affairs Department To Ease Processing of International Fans at Ports

South Africa's Home Affairs department has instituted temporary practices to ease the processing of foreign visitors into the country during the World Cup. Free visas for foreign visitors attending games, passenger processing systems and new lanes at airports for foregin visitors are some of the measures being taken to ease the flood of visitors. Other measures will also be put in place, including one that aims to "track" foreign visitors around the country.

A 24-hour operations centre had been established in Pretoria to handle any problems that might arise.

Briefing the media earlier on Wednesday, Dlamini-Zuma said her department was also setting up a system to track and facilitate the movement of foreign visitors around the country.

"We are making sure we have an integrated system at our ports of entry that can assist us both in the security, but also in the facilitation of movement of people.

Home Affairs ready for 2010 SWC
News24
April 14, 2010

Zimbabwe Hopes to Draw Tourists With Revised Visa Rules

The government of Zimbabwe is hoping to revise its visa rules to ease international travel into the country from neighboring South Africa.

Proposals included a special permit to allow travel between South Africa and Zimbabwe and a complete suspension of visa requirements for visitors from the 32 participating nations.

This as concern grows that the tourism and commercial spin-offs from South Africa's hosting of the tournament may not be as high as initially predicted.

Zimbabwe's Tourism Minister Walter Mzembi said: "The arrivals have been revised down almost to about 280 000 or so, starting from an all high of 450 000. It affects us here as well".

Zimbabwe calls for special World Cup visa
April 13, 2010

Dalai Lama Denied SA Visa For Peace Conference

On the advice of Chinese officials, South Africa has denied a visa to the Dalai Lama, who was set to visit South Africa for a meeting to try to lay out a plan to use the excitement and investment around the World Cup to improve civil rights. Archbishop Desmond Tutu and former President FW De Klerk have backed out of the meeting.

The Dalai Lama had planned to join other Nobel peace laureates at a conference to discuss ways of using football to fight racism and xenophobia ahead of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

"It is true that South Africa, under intense pressure from the Chinese authorities, have denied a visa to the Dalai Lama," spokesperson Thubten Samphel told reporters.

Source:
SA denies visa for the Dalai Lama
Independent Online
March 23, 2009

More on the background of China-SA economic relations:

Over the past two years, South Africa has been China's key trade partner in Africa, accounting for 20.8 percent of China's trade with Africa, while Chinese foreign direct investment in South Africa was about $6 billion (R60bn), and South Africa's foreign direct investment in China came to $2bn (R20bn).

Dai Bing, ministerial counsellor at the Chinese embassy in Pretoria, confirmed that his government had appealed to the South African government not to allow the Dalai Lama into the country, warning that if it did so, this would harm bilateral relations.

Source:

Independent Online
March 22, 2009