Business lobby group, Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA), has urged the South African government to become more pro-actively involved in fixing the country’s visa system. BLSA CEO, Busi Mavuso, has requested that President Ramaphosa use the upcoming South African Investment Conference to take this “opportunity to announce a credible intervention to fix the visa mess. This would go far to addressing one of the major sources of a lack of confidence in South Africa’s investment case.”

The request is made in the context of the Department of Home Affairs revealing that it has a backlog of 62 692 visa applications. Visa applications submitted from within South Africa are presently taking in excess of 12 months to be processed. BLSA stresses that this situation is not acceptable as it results in significant uncertainty and presents an impossible situation for businesses.

BLSA further state that the visa system has to exist within an environment where international companies feel welcome and are confident that they are able to plan their investments in the country with certainty. If the government does not do this then companies looking to expand their operations will simply look at alternative countries in which to establish their operations. Furthermore, South Africa presently has a significant skills deficit and the present chaos in the visa system is exacerbating this.