The DA strongly urges the Minister of Home Affairs, Malusi Gigaba, to put a halt to all undesirable immigration regulations- that adversely affect tourism and job creation- until a full regulatory impact assessment is conducted by the task team that he announced at the weekend.

This follows a press briefing this morning where the Minister announced that he will postpone, until June 2015, the implementation of the requirement for children to present unabridged birth certificates upon entry and exit from South Africa, and have written permission from both parents to travel.

The DA welcomes this compromise by the Minister but believes that this concession by Minister Gigaba is an indication that he did not adequately apply his mind to these regulations in the first place.

If the Minister is to mitigate the damage these regulations have caused thus far, the DA contends that all the new immigration regulations that are detrimental to our economy be halted- not just those relating to unabridged birth certificates.

The implementation of the regulations has resulted in major problems, which have very serious social and economic consequences:
South Africans with spouses who are foreign nationals being separated from their families;
Foreign nationals working in South Africa not given sufficient time to reapply for working permits;
Foreign nationals and business finding it increasingly difficult to obtain visas to enter the country, resulting in a deterrence in foreign investment; and
A decline in tourists coming into the country due to unnecessary red tape hindering the acquisition of visas.
Indeed these regulations, in their current form, will be exceptionally destructive to our economy, our reputation abroad and the lives of our citizens. They are simply not acceptable and the Minister must now do everything possible to mitigate the damage all these regulations have caused across several sectors which are crucial to the South African economy.

The DA will again urge Minister Gigaba to table the DA’s submission to these regulations before the task team so that it may use every tool in its arsenal to perform a comprehensive regulatory impact assessment and rollback undesirable regulations.

If the Minister is at all serious about addressing the public outcry over these new regulations, he must not put the cart before the horse and must suspend all the regulations.

Issued by the DA