Ghanaians no more need visa to travel to South Africa

Ghanaians going to South Africa no longer require a visa to travel after the South African government added Ghana to its visa-free countries list.

Aside Ghana, countries including Qatar, United Arab Emirates, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Cuba and Sao Tome and Principe have also been added on South Africa’s visa-free countries list.

The announcement was made via a post on South Africa’s Home Affairs twitter handle.

According to South Africa’s Home Affairs Minister, Dr. Aaron Motsoaledi, out of the 193 countries who are member states of the United Nations, the Department granted visa-free status to 75 countries.

He said 16 out of the 75 are in “our [African] continent and are SADC members and 59 are from all over the world.” Ghana is part of some seven countries added to the visa-free list.

“We do this by making life easier for our sister Departments such as Tourism to boost their tourism figures. Tourism will soar if we relax visa requirements for entry into South Africa. We know that Tourism is very important for job creation,” he said.

Below are excerpts of the statement by the Home Affairs Minister with regards to visa waiver:

While Home Affairs Department core mandate is issuing identification, we also contribute significantly to economic growth.

We do this by making life easier for our sister Departments such as Tourism to boost their tourism figures. Tourism will soar if we relax visa requirements for entry into South Africa. We know that Tourism is very important for job creation.

Out of the 193 countries who are member states of the United Nations, the Department has granted visa-free status to 75 countries. Of these 16 are in our continent and are SADC members and 59 are from all over the world.

Today, we wish to announce an addition to our visa-free countries.

These are:

Qatar

United Arab Emirates

New Zealand

Saudi Arabia

Cuba

Ghana

Sao Tome and Principe

We will immediately enter into discussions with them about how a visa-free regime will work.

We still have some homework to do for 3 countries whose combined populations make up close to 30% of the world’s population i.e. China, India and Nigeria.

While we are busy tackling the matter of the three countries.

For now, we shall this financial year, increase 2½ times the number of people who work for Home Affairs to process visas in both China and India.

We shall increase 2 times the number of people who process visas to our country in Nigeria.