South Africa was recently named as the best country in the world to visit, with Cape Town named as the best city in the world to visit at the 2023 Telegraph Travel Awards.
Thekiso Rakolojane, the Hub Head, South African Tourism, has said that though it is a challenge getting visas to some countries, South Africa has made the application process for Nigerians to get the South African Visa easier.
In an interview with ARISE NEWS on Saturday, Rakolojane explained, “I think visas are a global phenomenon in terms of a challenge wherever you want to go,” giving an example of the United States where he said, “I heard that to apply for an American visa, the appointment alone takes about a year. Obviously, for South African Visa, it won’t take you that long.”
He then went on to say, “What we’ve done as a country is that we’ve now implemented a two-tier system. You can apply for an E-visa where you apply online within the comfort of your home, so you do not need to leave your house to go to the VFS to apply. And also, you do not have to have your documentation at VFS and leave it there, so you can travel and go about your business without the old system where you had to go and drop off your passport.
“Same thing where even if you go into the VFS, whether it’s in Abuja or Lagos, you actually have an option of either dropping off your passport, or applying and not leaving your passport.”
He however, advised that people should ensure to get their legal documents in order, as many had been rejected due to the illegality of their application documents.
While speaking on the benefits of visiting South Africa, Rakolojane emphasized that Nigeria and South Africa, in their different cultural aspects, had something akin to sibling rivalry between themselves.
He said this was a good thing, saying, “As much as we are antagonistic against each other, we also love each other.”
He then pointed out that there was a fusion between the music and food of both countries, saying, “There’s more similarities than there’s differences particularly when it comes to elements of culture, whether it’s music, food or football.”
Continuing to emphasize on the variety on offer in South Africa, he said, “What is exciting is South Africa has something for everyone, whether it’s a family, a group of friends or you’re an individual just going on a retreat, and you just, you know, the hustle and bustle of life has gotten to you, now you want to go and just relax yourself, we’ve got all of that for you.”
He affirmed that South Africa is safe for female travellers and revealed that there are many groups of Nigerian women who have booked tours to visit the Winelands in South Africa? and others have chosen if as their destination of choice for weddings and honeymoons.
However, while he said that Nigeria was a great country to visit, he implied that Nigeria was not doing enough to attract tourists as he said, “I think Nigeria as a country can do a lot more in encouraging South Africans to come and experience what Nigeria has to offer.”
Rakolojane touched on the issues of safety and xenophobia in the country, stating that initiatives had been put in place to act on these issues. He assured that the government had dealt with security issues, and that no xenophobic attacks had been recorded since September 2019.
He went on to say, “When you talk on issues of safety, because we’re so serious about tourism at the national level, we’ve got what we call the tourism safety initiative, which is a collaboration between government, private sectors, as well as communities, particularly in where we know there are a lot of touristic activities.”
Ozioma Samuel-Ugwuezi
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