SARS introducing new ‘travel pass’ for everyone entering or leaving South Africa

Businesstech  - 21 October 2022

 

The South African Revenue Service (SARS) says it will introduce an ‘online traveller declaration system’ that all travellers need to comply with.

The new system will simplify passenger movement at South African airports, SARS said, and will come into effect from 1 November 2022.

The system aims to collect travel information and, in return, grants a traveller pass via email, said SARS.

It requires that all travellers – including South African citizens and residents, children and infants – leaving or entering South Africa by air complete the declaration. SARS said that once completed and submitted, travellers will receive a pass before they board.

The new online system will be rolled out in all South African international airports, starting with OR Tambo International Airport from 1 November, and then to others in the first quarter of 2023, the revenue service said.

“Upon arrival in South Africa, there will be instructions at the airports that will guide and inform travellers what to do next,” it said.

Currently, in terms of the declaration of goods at the airport, all people who arrive in the country are required to complete a Traveller Card (TC-01) if they have something to declare – the card is then used alongside your passport in the customs process.

Some goods that are required to be declared include things such as:

• Products purchased or acquired abroad
• Goods remodelled or repaired abroad
• Anything prohibited or restricted, or controlled under any law

When departing from South Africa, residents are further required by SARS to register valuables before their trip – this can be done at the customs office in international departures before handing luggage in.

However, tourists to South Africa can reclaim Value-Added Tax (VAT) on the goods bought during their visit to the country, added SARS.

SARS has been beefing up its tax policy and working with other institutions to ensure stricter compliance with tax law. The latest Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) annual report showed that over R41.6 million in penalties was imposed by SARS on certain people and businesses over 2021 – many of which were instances of non-compliance.

SARS has a history of keeping tabs on taxpayers. In mid-September, Tax Consulting SA noted that the taxman can track a person’s flights as part of stricter emigration processes.

Nikolas Skafidas, a tax expert from the group said that expatriate taxpayers awaiting approval for their non-resident status might have their flights tracked into and out of South Africa by the tax authority.

He said that flight details could possibly be used by SARS when questioning the validity of an applicant’s claim that they intend to reside outside of South Africa permanently.

www.samigration.com

 

China expected to grant Xi 5 more years, no major changes

Star Tribune – 21 October  2022

BEIJING — China on Sunday opens a twice-a-decade party conference at which leader Xi Jinping is expected to receive a third five-year ter m that breaks with recent precedent and establishes himself as arguably the most powerful Chinese politician since Mao Zedong.

Xi is expected to issue a lengthy address at the opening session, but little change is foreseen in his formula of strict one-party rule, intolerance of criticism and a hard-line approach toward COVID-19 including quarantines and travel bans even as other countries have opened up.

As with most Chinese political events, little information has been released beforehand and the congress' outcome will only be announced after several days of closed-door sessions. How much has been decided in advance and how much is still to be hashed out in face-to-face meetings also remains unknown.

At a two-hour news conference Saturday, the congress' spokesperson Sun Yeli reaffirmed the government's commitment to its "zero-COVID" policy despite the economic costs, and repeated its threat to use force to annex self-governing Taiwan.

But Sun offered few details about what if any changes would be enacted to the party's charter at the meeting, which is expected to last about a week. The congress is the 20th in the history of the century-old party, which boasts some 96 million members, over 2,000 of whom will attend the Beijing meetings.

The changes will "incorporate the major theoretical views and strategic thinking" concluded in the five years since the last congress, said Sun, a deputy head of the Chinese Communist Party's Propaganda Department who is not well known outside party circles.

The amendment or amendments will "meet new requirements for advancing the party's development and work in the face of new circumstances and new tasks," Sun said.

Xi has left little room for further political aggrandizement, having placed himself thoroughly in charge of domestic affairs, foreign policy, the military, the economy and most other key matters overseen by party working groups that he leads.

The congress comes as China's economy is facing major headwinds amid a near-collapse in the real estate sector and the toll on retail and manufacturing imposed by COVID-19 restrictions that upped the regime's already intense monitoring of the population and suppression of free speech.

In his remarks, Sun said China would exert all efforts to bring Taiwan under its control peacefully. But he said China would not tolerate what he called a movement toward full independence backed by hard-liners on the island and their overseas backers— presumably the U.S., which is Taiwan's main source of military and diplomatic support despite the lack of formal relations in deference to Beijing.

Sun also offered no hope China would be backing away from "zero COVID," which Xi and other leaders have made a political issue despite criticism by the World Health Organization and others that it is not a practical long-term solution given improvements in vaccines and therapies.

Many expect the policy to be continued at least until March, which Xi is expected to be given his third term as president and other top Cabinet leaders are installed.

While Xi faces no open opposition, his parting with the party's former collegial leadership style to concentrate power in his own hands does rankle among the public and party officials, said political observer and dissident Yin Weihong, who has faced repeated police harassment for his opposition views.

"There's a sense that he's taken a cake formally divided amongst several and decided he'll just have it all to himself," Yin said in a phone call from his home south of Shanghai.

www.samigration.com

 

 

‘Home Affairs will suffer irreparable harm’: Auditor-general flags number of delayed projects

The Citizen - 19 October 2022

Key targets relating to the department's modernisation projects have not been achieved.

The Department of Home Affairs has to address a number of challenges and bolster its Information technology (IT) systems to improve service delivery.

This is according to the Auditor-General’s office.

On Tuesday, the office briefed Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs regarding the department’s audit outcomes for the 2021/2022 financial year, which ran from April 2021 to March 2022.

Annual performance report

During the briefing, Fhumulani Rabonda, deputy business executive at the Auditor-General’s office, informed the committee that Home Affairs submitted its annual performance report, but there were material misstatements that needed to be adjusted.

“We managed to correct the material misstatements that we had identified during the [audit] process,” he said.

Rabonda revealed that the department has achieved 69% of its annual targets in the 2021/2022 financial year.

However, key targets relating to the department’s modernisation projects – which includes Abis and e-Visa system – as well as the the establishment of the border management agency (BMA) have not been met.

He explained that the department had set targets that it intends to achieve by 2024 in the medium-term strategic framework, which was reviewed in 2019.

“We had looked at the current year’s performance report [and] what does it tell us in relation to these targets they have set themselves. We [have] highlighted the fact that the targets in relation to modernisation projects are behind schedule,” he said.

Rabonda pointed that while the border management agency has been formed, it is not yet fully functional due to the implementation protocols that have not been signed at this stage.

Modernisation projects

e-Visa and BMCS

Regarding the e-Visa system and Biometric Movement Control System (BMCS), Rabonda said the Auditor-General’s office has identified there were “significant control deficiencies” and warned that these needed to be given attention.

“If they are not addressed, the modernisation projects may have similar significant control deficiencies as the legacy systems. This means that what Home Affairs will have new systems with the same problems,” he continued.

Rabonda explained that these deficiencies were caused by poor project management and governance processes within Home Affairs’ IT internal department.

“Over the past few years, we have been reporting that there is leadership instability in the ICT environment in Home Affairs. So our recommendation is that action plans should be developed and implemented to address the significant control deficiencies,” he added.

Earlier this year, Home Affairs revealed it was working on the e-Visa system, which allows tourists visiting South Africa to apply for their visas online and thereafter be issued virtually.

The paperless virtual visa is intended to combat visa fraud and open South Africa as a desirable destination. 

The department had also indicated at the time that it was in the process of developing the BMCS, which will enable the capturing of fingerprint and facial biometric data of all travellers who enter or exit South Africa.

This system is expected to be rolled out at 34 ports of entry across the country – including major airports and land borders.

Abis system

Budget increase

Meanwhile, Rabonda further told the committee that phase one of the Automated Biometric Identification System (Abis), which was launched in 2018, is yet to be completed.

Home Affairs had targeted to finish the first phase by December 2021, and the department has spent at least R294 million on this phase.

Rabonda revealed that the budget of the Abis project, which is aimed at ending identity theft, has increased from R410 million to R475 million as a result of delays and “technology becoming more expensive”.

“There is a need for the department to monitor closely the remaining budget to avoid having the need to having to ask more funds for this project because if that is not done then government may find itself with a project that they need to fund more from the limited budget that is available,” he told the committee.

He said the delays were caused by IT firms, EOH and Idemia.

“You will remember that EOH decided to pull out of a number of government projects including this one and on doing so the department appointed Idemia as the service provider,” he continued.

In May 2021, the committee heard how EOH allegedly flouted tender processes to score the Abis contract, valued at more than R400 million, from the department.

Payments made to EOH regarding the Abis project amounted to R283 million.

The company was then slapped with a penalty by the department and was subjected to a Hawks investigated.

“The delays by service providers saw the department invoking penalties of R62 million in terms of EOH and R3 million regarding Idemia,” Rabonda added.

‘National adverse impact’

The Abis system was introduced to replace the Home Affairs National Identification System (HANIS), which was said to be manually operated and outdated.

According to the department, Abis aims to act as a fundamental baseline for the national identification system and will consolidate South African and foreign nationals’ data into a single base.

Rabonda noted that the importance of the Abis system, saying it would have a “national adverse impact” if it was not completed.

“The department will suffer irreparable harm if it’s not successfully implemented because this project is critical to resolving some of the risks faced by Home Affairs and the Security Cluster as a whole. Hence we are saying there is a need to appreciate the impact the department’s service delivery, the economy and security of the state.

“Everybody who is involved needs to jealously guard this project to make sure that all that needs to be done is done within time and effectively so,” he explained.

Later in the briefing, Rabonda said the Abis project was one of the major causes of irregular expenditure for Home Affairs (R12.8 million) in the 2021/2022 financial year.

 

3 Hour Delays for Tourists at SA’s OR Tambo International Airport with New Biometric Chaos

SAPeople – 19 Oct  2022

Tourists from around the world have had to wait in customs on average for at least three hours at OR Tambo International Airport due to the piloting of a new biometric system, according to the DA that says it has been alerted to these delays in tourists being able to reach the public arrivals area.

The Biometric Movement Control System (BMCS) appears to have been untested, and has effectively gone “live”, instead of being piloted first.

“To take piloting of the systems live concurrently goes against pilot study principles which should be a mini-version of a full-scale study or a trial run done in preparation of the complete study,” points out Manny de Freitas MP – DA Shadow Minister of Tourism.

“The delays create a negative impression to those entering South Africa. In addition, it creates havoc for tour itineraries and programmes which are pre-planned, pre-booked and carefully timed so that tourists maximise their time in our country.”

De Freitas claims some tour groups have had to actually skip pre-booked and pre-paid activities because of these delays at the Joburg airport.

The DA says this is just another example of the ANC failing to understand the major impact on tourism that inefficiency and unprofessionalism have. And that these tourists will go back to their countries and relate their bad experiences which “further impacts negatively on our tourism numbers”.

De Freitas has submitted official questions to the Minister of Home Affairs about the BMCS and the piloting thereof, and has discussed it with DA Home Affairs colleagues.

Similar delays were experienced in 2016 at OR Tambo with the rollout of the biometric system then, to collect data on people arriving and leaving South Africa.

www.samigration.com

 

 

Converting SA to full e-visa system tripped up by huge backlog, tech challenges, says Sisulu

News 24 – 18 October 2022

 

• The tourism and aviation industries have both been hit hard by the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
• Even before the pandemic hit, the implementation of a full e-visa system was used as an example of how it can be made easier for travellers to visit the country.
• Although it does not fall directly under her department, Minister of Tourism Lindiwe Sisulu addressed the challenges at the annual general assembly of the Airlines Association of Southern Africa.

The implementation of e-visas to facilitate travel to the country is being tripped up by a huge backlog in converting the paper-based system to a computerised one, according to Minister of Tourism Lindiwe Sisulu.

"We continue to advocate for solutions in the areas that support and enable aviation such as visa facilitation. A lot of work has been done by the Department of Home Affairs as a partner to the sector and most recently, the rollout of e-visas in various countries, including seven African countries was implemented," Sisulu said at the 52nd annual general assembly of the Airlines Association of Southern Africa (AASA) taking place near Kleinmond.  

"Yes, we have a problem with our visa system and a lot of work still has to be done regarding the ability to implement [more] e-visas. There has been many discussions about the inefficiency of our visa regime and we have taken a resolution to follow intercontinental trends. However, we have difficulties."

She acknowledged that a lot of complaints have been received from SA's neighbouring countries about the time it takes to obtain visas. 

"We have made a commitment to get on the e-visa issue as soon as possible, but the backlog is huge. Just converting what we have on paper to being computerised is taking a lot of time. We are sorry that we are behind. It is a technology and backlog issue," Sisulu told News24 Business on the sidelines of the assembly.

She applauded Zambia for its recent announcement on waiving visa requirements for tourists from various overseas markets, many of which are key source markets for most destinations within the southern African region. 

"The easing of the visa requirements is a stimulus for integrated marketing of the region. But we must do more than just advocate," said Sisulu.

Aaron Munetsi, CEO of AASA, emphasised that it is important for government to consult with the airline industry before making policy decisions. 

"As we saw throughout the pandemic, governments often make the right noises, but fail to follow-through with suitable actions or the appropriate support," he said. 

Examples he gave of how data-based solutions can help airlines and airports increase their competitiveness in terms of customer experience include touchless biometric scanners, e-passports, e-visas and e-waybills.   

"Governments promise to slash red tape to become more business-friendly, yet these are some of the low-hanging fruits that will lubricate the flow of legitimate people and goods between and across markets. By providing these positive travel and trading experiences, we will become more competitive and attractive in our own right, but crucially, also as destinations and markets for investment, tourism and commerce," said Munetsi.

www.samigrtion.com