In a critical step to reform the visa system and position the Department as an economic enabler by supercharging job creation in the tourism sector, Home Affairs today announces the creation of an innovative new Trusted Tour Operator Scheme (TTOS), set to be implemented from January 2025.
With an initial focus on the burgeoning tourist markets of China and India, the TTOS will remove some of the key obstacles standing in the way of South Africa becoming a favoured tourism destination for the second and fifth largest economies in the world. Chinese tourists made over 100 million outbound trips in 2023, with South Africa receiving a miniscule 93,000 of these arrivals. In comparison, a country like Australia attracted over 1.4 million visitors from China in 2023. At the moment, Indian tourists account for only 3.9% of all international visitors to South Africa – and China for only 1.8%.
In collaboration with the Department of Tourism, as well as the Presidency and Operation Vulindlela, the Department of Home Affairs has resolved to play our role in rectifying this unacceptable economic underperformance by urgently clearing obstacles to tourism from these two major source-markets. After seeing the positive impact made by the Trusted Employer Scheme (TES), which provides swift and simplified visa processing services to vetted and approved businesses to attract critical skills, Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber directed that the same principle be applied to cutting red tape and improving efficiency for tourists from non-visa exempt countries like China and India.
Through TTOS, vetted and approved tour operators from these countries will be invited to register with the Department. In exchange for undergoing thorough screening up- front and assuming responsibility for travellers in their groups, the Department will for the very first time process group applications from Chinese and Indian tourists travelling with approved operators. Tourist visa applications processed through TTOS will be handled by a dedicated and skilled team of adjudicators to ensure swift and reliable processing, and will also benefit from the removal of restrictive red tape that currently suffocates South Africa’s tourism potential.
“I am particularly pleased that we are able to make this announcement during the President’s state visit to China, as it sends a powerful message that the Government of National Unity is serious about unlocking our country’s vast tourism and economic potential,” said Minister Schreiber. “Research indicates that boosting tourism by only 10% per year can boost annual economic growth by 0.6% and create tens of thousands of new jobs for South Africans. Travelling in large groups is the preferred option for many tourists from some countries and it is time for our visa system to adapt in order to reflect and capitalise on this reality.”
Minister Schreiber added: “This is only the start of Home Affairs’ embrace of our role as an economic enabler. Exciting as it is, TTOS is itself but an interim measure to boost tourism while we move with speed to digitally transform Home Affairs. Ultimately, our vision is for a fully automated process that delivers secure tourist visa outcomes digitally and within seconds to tourists from around the world.”
The regulations for the TTOS will be published shortly, as well as information on how tour operators can apply with the Department of Home Affairs ahead of the scheme’s rollout in January 2025.
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ISSUED BY THE MINISTRY OF HOME AFFAIRS

Applicants who prefer hard copies of ZEP waiver letters will still be able to collect them at branches.

Leon Schreiber, Minister of Home Affairs, during the swearing-in ceremony of the new national executive members at Cape Town International Convention Centre on 3 July, 2024 in Cape Town. 

Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber has announced that the first batch of Zimbabwean Exemption Permit (ZEP) waiver applications has been processed.

ZEP holders will no longer need to go to Home Affairs branches to find out the outcome of their applications. The department will be sending them out digitally.

In December last year, then-minister of Home Affairs Aaron Motsoaledi granted at least 178,000 Zimbabweans exemption permits until 29 November 2025.

Until then, no holder of a valid exemption permit may be arrested, ordered to depart or be detained for purposes of deportation or deported for any reason related to them not having any valid exemption certificate.

In the meantime, Zimbabweans have to apply for other types of visas to regulate their stay in the country.

The ZEP has allowed Zimbabweans to live, work and study in South Africa since 2009. This has been part of the Dispensation of Zimbabweans Project.

ZEP waiver applications

Schreiber announced on Thursday that the department has managed to process 60,582 outstanding ZEP waiver applications. Many of these date back to 2022.

The department will process another 22,529 ZEP waiver applications soon, he said. 

“Over time, this digital-first approach will be extended to other applicants in the visa and permit regime,” said Schreiber. 

“This means that applicants will no longer be required to visit a VFS branch to collect physical, paper-based copies of the waiver letters. Instead, starting today with ZEP holders and later, all applicants will conveniently receive digital waiver letters, in PDF format, through email. These digital letters can be used to submit a mainstream visa application going forward.

“While this step on its own may be a small one, it is still meaningful as part of our larger quest to clamp down on corruption and to enhance [the] efficiency of services by transforming Home Affairs into a digital-first Department.”

Applicants who still prefer to collect hard copies of ZEP waiver letters at branches will still be able to do so.

Digital-first Home Affairs

In his statement to the portfolio committee in Home Affairs in parliament last week, Schreiber said the issues faced by the department, including application delays and fraud, were a national threat and would only be curbed by a digital approach.

“The lack of a modern digital system to process all applications, adjudications and communication at Home Affairs is the root cause of the national security threat we face in this sector,” said Schreiber.

“Home Affairs systems are vulnerable to fraud, corruption and discretion because they are outdated, antiquated, paper-based, manual and, therefore, open to subversion.”

The minister said he would move with urgency to digitally transport the department.

The short answer

As you have refugee status you should not have any difficulty renewing your licence

The whole question

I am a refugee with a four year refugee status that I renew every four years.

My RSA driver's licence expired last week. I went to the traffic department to renew it and was told they no longer renew our licences without first speaking to Home Affairs. How does one get it all fixed?

 The long answer

Thank you for your email about your difficulties renewing your driver’s licence.

As you have refugee status you should not have any difficulty renewing your licence.

It may be that a regulation 32(A) of the National Road Traffic Regulations promulgated in 2014 is creating a problem:

This regulation 32(A) says that “Motorists must verify all personal and address particulars with any motor vehicle or driving licence transaction.”

If, on the other hand, the problem is not to do with any technical detail, but is to do with Home Affairs’ notorious inefficiency and lack of capacity, you could ask the following organisation for assistance:

bring her back to South Africa  ?

The short answer

You can contact these organisations.

The whole question

My daughter was born in South Africa and her father took her to Nigeria to visit his family while she was still an infant. He was a Nigerian national and I’m a South African citizen, but we never got married. He passed away without bringing her back to me in South Africa. She is now 15 years old and luckily through social media, we managed to contact each other. But she faces abuse from her late father’s sisters in Nigeria. How can I bring my child back to South Africa?  

The long answer

You must be very relieved that you and your daughter have finally been able to contact each other through social media after searching for each other for a long time.

First, your daughter is a South African citizen since you are South African even though her father was Nigerian. She remains a South African citizen unless she became a Nigerian citizen while living with her father, and the Retention of South African Citizenship through the Department of Home Affairs was not applied for, before she became a Nigerian citizen.

If your daughter’s birth was registered, you should have a birth certificate and ID number for her. If her birth was not registered, you can apply for a late birth registration through Home Affairs, and you would need to bring whatever documents you have like a clinic card or certificate as proof of birth at a hospital or clinic.

Since dealing with Home Affairs is mostly very difficult and takes a very long time, you could contact the following organisations for advice and help on how best to proceed

The short answer

We suggest either De Saude Attorneys or Intergate Immigration.

The whole question

I'm hoping you can advise me on the following situation.

My mother passed away in 2016 in another country. She was a citizen of that country and South Africa.

Her other country death certificate has been issued showing her date of birth to be slightly different from her South African one. We need her South African death certificate to be issued by Home Affairs so we can wind up her estate. We were asked by Home Affairs to translate all the other country's documents and resubmit them. We did this but Home affairs still refuses to issue the death certificate. It has been over three years of back and forth? We are at our wits end. What can we do?

Can you refer us to a firm that specialises in this?

The long answer

Thank you for your email asking for a reference to a firm specialising in dealing with Home Affairs, who are refusing to issue a death certificate for your mother due to her birth certificate in her other country reflecting a different birth date from the one on her South African ID.

It must be deeply frustrating, and indeed, infuriating, for your family, to be confronted with Home Affairs’ ongoing refusal to issue the death certificate after you have submitted further information from the other country confirming her date of birth. That it has taken three years of trying is disgraceful, but sadly, not at all unusual when dealing with Home Affairs.

Home Affairs has been taken to court a number of times over the last few years both for its unreasonable delay in processing applications and wrongful refusal of applications. In March  of this year, it lost yet another appeal when the Supreme Court of Appeal called it “unconscionable...deliberately obstructive and dilatory”