Ghana is yet to act in respect of a 90-day visa-free arrangement for ordinary passport holders with the Republic of South Africa (RSA), despite the challenges businesses and individuals currently have to go through to acquire a visa to travel to the Southern Africa nation.
AviationGhana sources close to the issue explained that the South African Home Affairs Department tabled the offer more than a year ago so as to facilitate trade and investment between the two countries but Ghana is yet to accept the terms.
The SA Home Affairs, which is separate from the country’s Foreign Affairs office, offered a 90-day visa-free entry per year for Ghanaian ordinary passport holders. Persons who want to stay longer would have the option of applying for visa to enable them extend their stay.
However, Ghana is said to have asked for 180days – a length of time rarely granted in such visa-free arrangements between two nations.
Additionally, while the SA Home Affairs office was seeking to have this done through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) since there already exist a bilateral relation between the two countries. However, Ghana say it is to table arrangement through Parliament before it can give effect to same.
The third issue is the removal of undesirable persons from the RSA. RSA wants the Government of Ghana (GoG) to bear the cost of returning its citizens who overstay their welcome or go contrary to the laws of RSA for which reasons they become unwanted in the rainbow nation.
GoG disagrees with this, according to close sources with in-depth knowledge about these discussions.
Despite these initial observations raised by Ghana, there has not been any further action on the South Africa visa waiver proposal. The RSA Home Affairs office says it has been waiting all this while for Ghana to act and move the discussions forward so as to actualize the said arrangement.
Push for E-Visa for a start
While Ghanaians struggle with booking appointments through the VFS to submit visa applications, Nigeria has been activated for online Visa Application processing. Which is more efficient and less frustrating?
While awaiting resolution of the issue, the Country Manager of South African Airways, Madam Gloria Wilkinson-Mensah, urged the institution of an online visa regime just as has been done for Nigerians traveling to South Africa.
“It will be a good alternative to the long-awaited visa waiver protocol between Ghana & RSA. With the AFCFTA secretariat in Ghana, headed by a South African, free movement of people and goods should start with these two countries as a goodwill gesture and commitment to the vision for the Continent.”
Background of the proposed visa-free travel to South Africa
In July 2019, Ghana along with 6 other countries, was penned down for a visa-free travel regime by South Africa Home Affairs office. The countries were: Qatar, United Arab Emirates, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Cuba, Ghana, Sao Tome and Principe.
Promises were made by SA authorities to meet their Ghanaian counterparts to finalize the implementation by the end of August 2019.
A visa-free regime was approved for all the countries on the list a few weeks later with the exception of Ghana and Sao Tome and Principe.