Pretoria was making it ‘easier to travel to South Africa for tourism, business and work’, with a review and upgrading of the country’s visa application processes and categories, President Cyril Ramaphosa said in his State of the Nation Address (Sona) in February.
In line with this, the Department of Home Affairs is rolling out a Biometric Movement Control System (BMCS) at border posts that will allow for the capture of fingerprint and facial biometric data of all travellers who enter South Africa.
This system will be built into the existing live capture platform to be rolled out to 34 ports across the country, which include OR Tambo and Cape Town international airports.
The department has been piloting e-gates at Cape Town International Airport with the aim of improving passenger processing times.
It intends to expand these e-gates to other international airports alongside the introduction of a new passenger name record system, forming the “trusted traveller programme”.
In his Sona, Ramaphosa said a ‘comprehensive review of the work visa system is currently under way’, which is exploring the possibility of ‘new visa categories … such as a start-up visa and a remote working visa’.
More details regarding this streamlining and modernising of the entry process into South Africa are yet to be released, but the various initiatives are included in Home Affair’s strategic plan for 2025.
Picture: Getaway Gallery
