• Israel, Turkey, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Denmark, the UK and Vietnam have all halted air travel to and from South Africa.
• The suspension of flights follows the detection of 501.v2, a mutated SARS-CoV-2 variant which holds a higher transmission rate.
• A wave of cancellations impacting the UK is likely to extend to South Africa, as countries try and keep new, possibly more virulent, variants of the coronavirus out.

Several countries have imposed travel bans on South Africa after a new, more infectious SARS-CoV-2 mutation was confirmed in mid-December.

The 501.v2 variant was initially identified in the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, and along the Garden Route. It has since spread to other parts of the country and the world and may have properties that allow it to spread faster than other variants of the coronavirus.

A new, and also possibly more virulent variant has, similarly, been confirmed in the UK by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who announced tougher lockdown measures for London on Saturday 19 December. Following a surge in infections, the UK implemented tighter lockdown restrictions to start the new year. 

Following the variant's initial discovery, dozens of countries have banned flights from the UK.

These countries have already closed their borders to South African travellers in response to the new variant.

Vietnam

On 5 January, Vietnam's health and transport ministries announced an immediate suspension of flights from both South African and the UK.

"The risk for the disease to penetrate and spread in Vietnam is very high, especially from people entering from infected countries," the health ministry said in a statement.

Denmark

On 5 January 2021, Denmark's justice ministry announced that "foreigners residing in South Africa will be refused entry" as part of a travel ban expected to last until at least 17 January. Exceptions include travel for child care purposes and family visits for people who are sick or dying. Access under these circumstances will still be subject to a negative Covid-19 PCR test.

United Kingdom

UK Health Minister Matt Hancock confirmed that direct flights from South Africa would be suspended at 09:00 on 24 December 2020. Travellers who have been in, or transited through, South Africa in the last ten days will also not be permitted to enter the UK.

Additionally, Hancock urged anybody who had been in contact with someone travelling from South Africa in the past two weeks to self-isolate in quarantine. 

"This new variant is highly concerning, because it is yet more transmissible, and it appears to have mutated further than the new variant that has been discovered in the UK," Hancock announced.

The Netherlands (reversed decision on 23 December)

Although the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which was one of the first to implement a UK travel ban on 20 December, initially announced that the Netherlands had closed its borders to South African travellers, regulations were revised on 23 December.

KLM airlines confirmed that South African travellers would be afforded access to the Netherlands on condition that they submit a negative Covid-19 PCR test result obtained less than 72 hours before arrival. Even with a negative result, travellers coming from South Africa will need to quarantine for ten days.

"KLM welcomes this decision and confirms that this updated regulation enables KLM to operate all passenger flights from South Africa to Amsterdam from 23 December 2020 and onwards as initially planned," the airline said in a statement.

Israel

On Sunday 20 December, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that all commercial flights from Britain, Denmark and South Africa had been suspended. Any travellers returning to Israel, who had spent any period of time in either Britain, Denmark or South Africa in the past 30-days, will be subject to a mandatory quarantine period.

Turkey

Turkey’s Health Minister Fahrettin Koca announced a temporary ban on all flights from Britain, the Netherlands, Denmark, and South Africa, citing dangers of the new Covid-19 variant. “It has been reported that the rate of transmission has increased with the mutation of the coronavirus,” said Koca.

Germany

Germany’s Federal Minister for Health Jens Spahn confirmed that flights from the UK and South Africa would be suspended from Monday 21 December. “Because of the reported coronavirus mutation, the federal government intends to restrict travel options between Germany and Great Britain and South Africa,” added government spokeswoman Martina Fietz. The temporary suspension will be reviewed on 31 December 2020.

Lufthansa confirmed that only flights from Frankfurt and Munich to South Africa will continue to operate. Flights from South Africa to Germany will reopen between 1 January and 6 January 2021 but will only be offered to passengers with German citizenship or proof of permanent residence. 

Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Health has confirmed the suspension of all international flights. Passengers in transit on Monday 21 December will, however, be allowed to complete their travel plans. The suspension will last until the end of 2020 and may be extended if cases continue to rise in high-risk countries.

Switzerland (revised 24 December)

Switzerland’s Federal Office of Civil Aviation “suspended all air traffic connections” with South Africa and the UK on Sunday 20 December 2020. “Switzerland is reacting to the appearance of a new variant of the coronavirus, which, according to initial findings, is significantly more contagious than the known form,” the authority said in a statement.

This decision was revised, allowing for limited flight operations from Thursday 24 December to "allow persons resident in the UK and South Africa to return home for Christmas". The Swiss Federal Office of Public Health confirmed that departures would be closely monitored and that persons leaving Switzerland will be kept separate from others using the airport.

Additionally, return flights into Switzerland, from the UK and South Africa, will only be offered to Swiss citizens or holders of a Swiss residence permit or type D visa from Switzerland. These flights will need to be preapproved by the Swiss Federal Office of Civil Aviation and citizens looking to return home have been urged to contact their preferred airline directly. 

Mauritius

On Monday afternoon, Mauritius confirmed that any person who had resided or travelled through the UK or South Africa in the last 15 days would be banned from entering the island nation.

Panama

The Central American nation announced that travellers from the UK and South Africa would be barred entry, effective from 23:59 on Monday 21 December.

These countries have banned travel from the UK, which makes bans on SA likely to follow

The UK has been hit with a swell of flight suspensions across the European Union and the world. Bans impacting South Africa, as a result of the 501.v2 variant’s presence, are likely to follow.

• France
• Norway
• Belgium
• Lithuania
• Latvia
• Estonia
• Italy
• India
• Ireland (travel ban ends on Saturday 9 January 2021)
• Austria
• Hong Kong
• Canada
• El Salvador
• Colombia
• Morocco
• Chile (effective Tuesday)
• Finland
• Argentina

www.samigration.com

 

 

Home Affairs minister Aaron Motsoaledi has published the draft One-Stop Border Policy (OSBP) for public consultation.

The policy aims to harmonise the movement of people and goods between South Africa’s land ports of entry and its neighbouring countries, as well as address congestion which results in delays.

The document also highlights a number of failures with the country’s current border system, including:

• Poor controls and weak management that adversely affect the country’s territorial integrity;

• Border infrastructure such as fences and patrol roads are inadequate. The capability of the state to secure this environment is limited and exposes large parts of the land border to strategic vulnerability, which contributes to problems such as wildlife poaching, human trafficking and smuggling;

•  The location, number and design of the country’s 72 ports of entry are a legacy of the country’s colonial and apartheid past.

To address these issues, government will establish a new Border Management Authority (BMA) which will be at the forefront of fighting illicit and unauthorised movement at the country’s borders.

The BMA will be established as a national public entity and will report to the minister of Home Affairs.

Border posts

The Department of Home Affairs said it is also redeveloping six of South Africa’s ports of entry, including:

• Beit Bridge (Zimbabwe);
• Lebombo (Mozambique);
• Oshoek (Eswatini);
• Kopfontein (Botswana);
• Maseru Bridge (Lesotho);
• Ficksburg (Lesotho).

This major project is aimed at modernising these ports into ‘world-class’ one-stop border posts, with construction set to be concluded by 2025.

“The benefit for the South African economy is that goods and people will move through these six busiest land ports at a faster pace and in a more effective and efficient manner,” the department said.

“This will have specific and direct benefits for traders, freight carriers and all those transporting goods since the intention is that all movement through these ports will be processed once and jointly by South Africa and the relevant neighbouring country.”

South Africa and its neighbouring countries currently use a two-stop system in which exit procedures are carried out by one state on one side of the border, while entry procedures are carried out on the other side.

The department said that the ideal solution is to establish OSBPs where vehicles, goods and people stop only once for border processing formalities.

Through a negotiated bilateral agreement, officials from both countries will operate in a common control zone where all procedures will be harmonised.

New trade deal

The new border policy comes after South Africa entered into the new African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) on 1 January 2021.

The historic AfCFTA agreement has been signed by 54 of the 55 African Union (AU) member States, and 34 countries have already deposited their instruments of ratification to the AU Commission and have become state parties.

The AfCFTA aims to build an integrated market in Africa that will see a pool of over a billion people with a combined GDP of approximately US$3.3 trillion.

The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa estimates that the AfCFTA will increase intra-Africa trade from the current 10%-16% to approximately 52% by the year 2022.

“The AfCFTA is a significant development that will change trade patterns and has the potential to transform African economies,” president Cyril Ramaphosa said in November.

“It will encourage economic diversification, beneficiation of our minerals and resources and value-addition to seize the opportunities arising from an increasingly open African continental market.

“We expect that in the new year, 2021, preferential trade in Africa will begin with significant product coverage and will be further expanded over the coming years,” he said.

www.samigration.com

• WhatsApp is delaying by three months the rollout of a new policy that some critics said would turn over user data to Facebook.
• Users originally were set to opt in or out of the policy change on February 8 and will now not have to until May 15.
• WhatsApp said the delay is due to "confusion" and "misinformation" surrounding the new policy, which it said will "not expand our ability to share data with Facebook."WhatsApp is delaying its privacy policy changes that critics said would have forced users to share personal data with Facebook, according to a company blog post published Friday.

The delay was due to the "confusion" and "misinformation" surrounding the new policy, according to the company. It said the new policy update only includes new options for people to manage their business on WhatsApp and "does not expand our ability to share data with Facebook."

The date of the new policy rollout will be pushed back until May 15, according to the blog post. WhatsApp also said no one's account will be suspended or deleted on February 8, when the policy was originally scheduled to go into effect.

The announcement comes two weeks after WhatsApp announced the new change, drawing criticism from the messaging app's users who were concerned about their data privacy. After the new policy was announced, many users began flocking to alternative messaging platforms, such as the encrypted chat app Signal. Tesla CEO Elon Musk even tweeted to "use signal."

WhatsApp on Monday attempted to address the uproar over privacy concerns with a post on its website, explaining that the update was designed to aid businesses on its platform, as it reiterated in Friday's post.

"We want to be clear that the policy update does not affect the privacy of your messages with friends or family in any way. Instead, this update includes changes related to messaging a business on WhatsApp, which is optional, and provides further transparency about how we collect and use data," WhatsApp said.

Signal saw 7.5 million downloads last week, a 4,200% spike since the previous week. On Wednesday, Signal was at the top of both Google and Apple's app stores. Large swaths of users migrated to Telegram as well - the platform gained 9 million new users last week, up 91% from the previous week, and is also at the top of Google and Apple's app stores.

www.vsoftsystems.co.za

 

The courts have pronounced on this section of the Act

 “ Section 4(3) of the Act, which came into operation on 1 January 2013, sets out requirements for citizenship by naturalisation, as follows:

‘A child born in the Republic of parents who are not South African citizens or who have not been admitted into the Republic for permanent residence, qualifies to apply for South African citizenship upon becoming a major if:

(a) he or she has lived in the Republic from the date of his or her birth to the date of becoming a major, and

(b) his or her birth has been registered in accordance with the provisions of the Births and Deaths Registration Act, 1992 (Act No. 51 of 1991).’

[3] It is common cause that all the respondents were born in South Africa, had their births registered in terms of the Births and Deaths Registration Act 51 of 1992 (Births and Deaths Act), have lived here since birth and have no other home apart from South Africa. The respondents have been unable to obtain citizenship in terms of the Act, because the Minister of Home Affairs (the Minister) interpreted the section as excluding them and also failed to promulgate the necessary forms to apply for citizenship. “

Contact our team to get clarification .

Please email us to info@samigration.com whatsapp me on:

 +27 82 373 8415, where are you now? check our website : www.samigration.com

 

Whatsapp  Tel No : +27 (0) 82 373 8415

 

Johannesburg - Minister of Home Affairs Dr Aaron Motsoaledi says his department is on course to appoint border control guards including border management commissioners in their drive to bring to end illegal movement of people into South Africa.

Motsoaledi made the announcement as South Africa is experiencing an influx of people trying to illegally make their way into the country especially through the border gates of Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Lesotho.

The influx worsened recently in Zimbabwe after the government introduced stricter lockdown regulations where curfew was implemented as 6pm and 6am in that country prompting people to cause chaos at the Beitbridge border gate.

Some were on Thursday still converging at the border gate hoping to make their way to South Africa amid the presence of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) and the South African Police Service (SAPS) who were jointly manning the borders following a series of illegal crossing through the Limpopo River.

“We will soon establish border control guards, including appointing permanent commissioner of the Border Management Authority (BMA) soon after President Cyril Ramaphosa signs the BMA Bill into an Act of parliament. We want to appoint the border control guards to allow the army to continue to do their work of protecting the sovereignty of the country and the police to do their criminal investigations,” Motsoaledi said.

He, however, said he had asked the army and police in the meantime to intensify their operation after receiving reports that some of the illegal immigrants allegedly paid bribes to certain police officers to allow them to cross illegally to South Africa.

Equally concerned about the illegal crossing is Limpopo Health MEC Dr Phophi Ramathuba, who raised the alarm about people trying to enter South Africa with false Covid-19 test results. Beitbridge border crossing staff discovered more than 50 people in the past weeks with fake Covid-19 tests while the Department of Health was enforcing regulations requiring anyone entering the country to produce a negative test, taken no more than 72 hours prior to a border crossing.

Due to the chaos, parliamentary portfolio committee on Home Affairs led by advocate Bongani Bongo had this week visited various ports in the country – a day after President Cyril Ramaphosa announced the closure of 20 land ports, which also included Beitbridge, Lebombo and Mbuzini.

Bongo said the solution to the problems of congestion at the border posts was through the establishment of One-Stop Border Post with neighbouring countries and the establishment of the Border Management Authority (BMA).

“On May 18, 2020, when the committee received a briefing from the department, it identified the One-Stop Border Post and BMA as pillars in the way of ensuring the smooth functioning of the border area and is thus concerned by the slow progress in implementing this policy position.

“To alleviate the perpetual crisis at this border, the government must move with speed to implement an already agreed policy position to establish a One-Stop border post. The tardiness in implementing this policy position is both unacceptable and a contributing factor to problems at this port of entry,” Bongo said.

Bongo said the aim of One-Stop Border Post was to improve the efficiency of movement at the port of entry which is something that is lacking at Beitbridge currently.

Yesterday, the portfolio committee was in Mbuzini and Lebombo to all witness congestion at those border gates. While there, immigration officials carried out various arrests of people who tried to cross into South Africa –they were arrested and then deported back to Mozambique.

www.samigration.com