The Minister of Home Affairs, Aaron Motsoaledi, has confirmed in a letter to the Western Cape Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Opportunities and Tourism, that his department has missed its own deadline to introduce the Remote Working Visa in South Africa by the end of June this year.
This means that it has now been 527 days and counting since President Ramaphosa first announced the intention to introduce this much needed and sought after visa category, in his February 2022 State of the Nation Address.
Remote workers, or Digital Nomads, are people who have jobs elsewhere in the world, who because of remote working options, would prefer to conduct this work (and spend their foreign earnings) in our beautiful destination.
This means that the introduction of a remote Working VISA is a clear win-win solution to boost long-stay tourism in the Western Cape and South Africa and is very much in line with South Africa Tourism’s drive to get tourists to stay longer. Today I attended a workshop convened by Minister of Tourism, Minister de Lille, it is clear that we need to work much harder to increase the number of tourists visiting South Africa. The Remote working visa is an excellent way to achieve this.
The continued and unnecessary delay to introduce this VISA means that South Africa and the Western Cape continues to lose digital nomads to competitor destinations, such as our neighbour Namibia, which have moved with speed and urgency to attract this new market.
While Minister Motsoaledi attributes the delay to the need to amend the Immigration Act, the Western Cape Government’s constructive proposal to the Department of Home Affairs, first submitted May 2021 and again in September 2022, sets out clear recommendations that would enable the introduction of this VISA within the existing legal framework, through amendments to Immigration Act 13 of 2002 regulations – without needing to amend the Immigration Act.
There is a clear proposal on how to swiftly introduce a remote work VISA and the continued failure to introduce this VISA category is costing our economy and compromising job creation, at a time when we should be doing all we can to grow and support sectors that have shown resilience and significant job-creating potential, such as tourism.
Pinup Diva
Why is gambling banned in South Africa?
Because there are too many cheetahs.
Nice Gnome
So I\’m real good friends with this guy named Juan Ted. Now, Juan is a pretty amazing guy. He can steal ANYTHING he wants to. Literally anything. It could be the shirt off your back, the wallet in your pocket, or I\’m even sure he\’d find a way to steal your house (And your spouse too). So anyway, one day Juan and I are sitting around watching TV, and they announced that the hope diamond will not be on display anymore and is now getting moved to an undisclosed location. So as we hear this, Juan says \”I\’m gonna steal it\”. Now I know how good Juan is at this kind of stuff, so I just tell him good luck and he goes on his way. Eventually he narrows his search down to a small cave in South Africa. When Juan gets there, he doesn\’t see any guards or anything outside the cave, so he just walks in assuming he was wrong about where the diamond was. He wanders around for a while until he sees a long lit hallway with the hope diamond at the end of it. Confident in his abilities, he strolls over to the diamond and picks it up before realizing its a trap! Suddenly, red lights flashed, armed men came running out, sirens went off. You could hear one of the men say under his breath \”We finally caught Juan Ted.\” But Juan, being the best thief in the world, said \”Not quite. On the count of three, I will disappear.\” As the men looked around confused, Juan began to count. \”Uno. Dos.\” And he disappeared without a tres.