Opposition party the Democratic Alliance (DA) will write to Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi to seek clarity on government’s criteria used to compile the list of countries considered high risk for international travel during the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.

DA shadow Minister of Tourism Manny de Frietas says information received by the DA from tourism experts indicate that the uncertain and inexplicable red list will completely bankrupt the tourism sector in South Africa within a few weeks. 

South Africa has issued a list of countries banned and those allowed to travel from abroad following the country’s steps to ease lockdown to Level 1.

The Department of Home Affairs on Monday published a revised red list, reducing the number of restricted countries.

Germany, the US and Canada, which the DA says are the most important for South African tourism, have made the revised list.

However, the DA claims that the revised list appears to have been arbitrarily drawn up and there is no correlation with the latest global Covid-19 statistics. 

“If total deaths per country was the criteria used to draw up this list then countries like Ecuador would have been included on the list as it has more deaths than Canada which was added onto the red list. Turkey and Bolivia, with more deaths, are not on the red list yet the Netherlands with less deaths than those two countries remains on the list,” the party argues.

It further contends that anyone should be allowed to cross South African borders if they present a negative polymerase chain reaction test, which would have been conducted in the country of origin.