New visa rules unlikely to have a trouble-free journey

The announcement that South Africa's new visa regulations will come into effect only on June 1 next year might sound like good news.

The delay, after the debacle when the rules were foolishly rushed through last year, should give the Department of Home Affairs time to get its act together in expectation of a tourism deluge.

Why the pessimism then?

First, you'd have thought that, when the new visa laws were sprung on everyone, they would have been accompanied by an explanation of why they were thought to be necessary, and what contingency plans were in place to help the people affected by them. Instead, what we got was a public relations black hole and families cruelly ripped apart. Can we trust the same outfit to do any better the second time around?

Then there's the question of how Home Affairs responds to an impact-assessment report that argues that the new visa laws will result in hundreds of thousands of job losses and billions of rands in lost tourism revenue.

Rest assured, the first thing the officials will do is hunt down whoever leaked the report. And only after that will we get some idea of how they're going to deal with the very real issues it raises. But don't get your hopes up - you might have to wait for another leak.

Chief among the concerns is how visitors will have to go about acquiring visas. In some countries, such as China, where only two centres will be able to issue them, the task might well prove insurmountable. Whether it will be much easier even where there are centres only time will tell.

Yes, we do need to know who is coming into our country and, yes, we need, as Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba says, to balance economic concerns with national security concerns. But can't we do this in a way that doesn't make good people with money to spend, who want to come here, change their minds.

Don't hold your breath.