South Africa’s borders and ports of entry have opened to international travellers with a list of high risk countries that are still prohibited to travel to South Africa for leisure travel.
South African Tourism (SA Tourism) has welcomed the government’s direction to opens its international borders, even though it not be open to all countries for leisure travel.
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s announcement last month that South Africa would be moving to alert level 1 comes with a developed risk categorisation model for different countries. This model classifies countries according to a scale of high, medium and low risk.
All travellers coming into the country will need to supply a negative PCR (polymerase chain reaction) COVID test not older than 72 hours from the date of departure from their country. Travellers will also be screened for any COVID-19 symptoms and be required to provide proof of accommodation address, should they need to self-quarantine.
South Africa Tourism Chief Executive Officer, Mr Sisa Ntshona, said “While many of our key source markets feature in the high risk category, meaning that they are not able to travel to South Africa for leisure purposes yet, the environment is fluid and changes constantly. We remain optimistic and encouraged by the gradual phased opening of our sector and we will monitor the changes regularly, as the country lists are reviewed every two weeks.”
Travellers from high risk countries who need to visit South Africa for business need to apply in writing to the Minister of Home Affairs and demonstrate reasons for their request to enter South Africa for business purposes. Such applications must be directed by email to: Covid19BusinessTravel@dha.gov.za.
All travellers from African countries will be allowed to travel to South Africa and must possess relevant travel documents, a negative PCR test result and will also be screened for COVID-19 symptoms.
“We are encouraged to see that travel is open for the rest of the continent. This follows global trends in changing traveller behaviour which is influenced by trust and confidence where travel starts domestically then regionally and ultimately internationally,” added Mr Ntshona.
The list of high-risk countries are as follows:
Albania Brazil France India
Argentina Chile Georgia Iran
Armenia Columbia Greece Iraq
Austria Costa Rica Guatemala Ireland
Bahrain Croatia Guyana Israel
Belgium Czech Republic Honduras Jamaica
Bolivia Denmark Hungary Jordan
Bosnia and Herzegovina Ecuador Iceland Kuwait
Lebanon Nepal Peru Suriname
Luxemburg Netherlands Portugal Switzerland
Maldives North Macedonia Puerto Rico Ukraine
Malta Oman Qatar United Emirates
Mexico Palestine Romania United Kingdom
Moldova Panama Russia USA
Montenegro Paraguay Slovakia Venezuela
