International travel officially back on the radar for SA

JOHANNESBURG. — The dust hasn’t even begun to settle on South Africa’s new international travel laws.

Despite opening up our borders to more than 150 other nations yesterday — including every state in Africa — there are still at least 60 countries who are not allowed to send tourists to Mzansi. The restrictions, which came into effect today, have infuriated the opposition.

DA shadow tourism minister Manny de Freitas has branded the “high-risk travel list” as ridiculous.

People from the US, UK, France, India, Russia, and Brazil will be “barred from entering South Africa” for leisure purposes. He sees flaws with the testing system, which is used so tourists can prove they haven’t got Covid-19:

“The DA is of the view that the list in its current form is utterly ridiculous. For example, tourists who have tested negative for Covid-19 and have downloaded the government’s tracing app should not be considered a health risk and be discriminated against because they happen to be of a certain nationality or traveling from a certain country,” de Freitas said.

“Government’s worrying trend of trying to grab power seems to now be playing out on an international stage with the irrational banning of certain countries to its red-list. This list does not seem based on any facts or data. As with other Covid-19 regulations and decisions, it seems that countries are arbitrarily put on this list without proper interrogation.”

Low-to-medium risk: who is allowed to travel to South Africa?

Here’s who can step foot in South Africa going forward:

Afghanistan Algeria America Samoa Andorra Angola
Antarctica Aruba Australia Azerbaijan Bahamas
Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belize Benin
Bermuda Bhutan Botswana Brunei Bulgaria
Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada
Cape Verde Islands Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad China
Christmas Islands Comoros Islands Congo Congo DR Cook Islands
Cuba Cyprus Djibouti Dutch Antilles East Timor
Easter Island Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea
Estonia Ethiopia Falkland Islands Fiji Islands Finland
French Polynesia Gabon Gambia Germany Ghana
Greenland Grenada Guadeloupe Guam Guinea
Guinea-Bissau Haiti Hong Kong Indonesia Italy
Ivory Coast Japan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Islands
Kosovo Kyrgyzstan Laos Latvia Lesotho
Liberia Libya Liechtenstein Lithuania Madagascar
Malawi Malaysia Mali Martinique Mauritania
Mauritius Mayotte Micronesia Mongolia Montserrat
Morocco Mozambique Myanmar Namibia Nauru
New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria
Niue Norway Pakistan Papua New Guinea Philippines
Pitcairn Island Poland Reunion Island Rwanda Samoa
Sao Tome Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Sierra Leone
Singapore Solomon Islands Somalia South Korea South Sudan
Spain Sri Lanka St. Helena St. Kitts & Nevis St. Lucia
St. Vincent & Gren Sudan Swaziland / eSwatini Sweden Syria
Taiwan Tajikistan Tanzania Thailand Togo
Tokelau Islands Tonga Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan
Tuvalu Uganda Uruguay Uzbekistan Vanuatu
Vietnam Wallis & Futuna Western Sahara Yemen Zambia
Zimbabwe

* – This list will be reviewed every two weeks. — The South African.

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