Why South Africa should adopt Namibia’s reciprocal visa regime

In an abrupt move, earlier this year Namibia decided to introduce visa requirements for 31 countries, citing the lack of reciprocity. In June, the government announced the new visa regime will be effective starting April 1, 2025. The countries on the list include 23 European states, six Asian states, and the United States and Canada.

With tourism being a vital sector, critics of this policy argue that it has the potential to deter tourists and stunt the Namibian economy. Eben de Klerk of the Namibian-based Economic Policy Research Association decried, “There cannot be a win. We just shot ourselves in the foot.”

But there are others who also support the move and see in it an opportunity to secure another stream of revenue for the state coffers and to put diplomatic pressure on other countries to lift visas for Namibians.

Namibia’s move also provoked a debate in other African countries, where citizens have been increasingly frustrated by absurdly long lists of visa requirements, exhausting queuing at embassies and the overall humiliation of the visa application process.

South Africans, too, have wondered whether they should follow in the footsteps of their Namibian neighbours. In my view, imposing reciprocal visas on foreigners would benefit our country.

South Africa is the third most popular African destination for tourists after Egypt and Morocco. In 2022, tourism brought the country some $14bn or 3.5 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) and employed 2.5 million people. In 2023, the country welcomed 8 million foreign visitors and is expected to achieve pre-COVID levels of 10 million soon.

Tourism is undoubtedly an important enough sector for South Africa, and some may worry that the imposition of reciprocal visas would be catastrophic for it. Yet the validity of this argument should be scrutinised.

While imposing restrictions on entry by forcing foreigners to apply for visas can significantly affect the number of tourists who visit a country, there is research that suggests that the impact depends on the type of visa.

According to one study of the effect of visas on tourist flows, adopting “more flexible visa policies, such as eVisa (blue), eTA, or visa-on-arrival” does not have “any significant effect on international tourism flows”.

In other words, how a country goes about applying visa restrictions matters. Traditional visas that require a prospective visitor to collect a myriad of documents, travel to embassies or consulates, fill out applications, wait in long queues and pay exuberant fees are ones that repel tourists. Visas-on-arrival and e-visas that only require an online application and are cheaper would not necessarily scare off foreigners.

And while certain types of visas may not affect tourism flows, there is money to be made by introducing them. The fees tourists pay for visas could raise substantial revenue for public administration. For example, in the first four years after launching its e-visa programme in 2014, the Indian government earned close to $210m in revenue from charging between $25 and $75 per visa. The fee was determined based on the nationality of the applicant, keeping in mind visa reciprocity.

The introduction of e-visas based on reciprocity could also help alleviate the bureaucratic burden on the state in processing entry requests. In July, South Africa’s new Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber decided to extend temporary visa concessions due to a huge backlog in processing. This is clearly a  a system that needs a major overhaul. The introduction of an electronic system to process not just tourist but also other types of visas could be part of the solution.

Apart from appreciating the financial and bureaucratic benefits that adopting a reciprocal visa system can have, there is also a moral argument to be made in its favour. Visa regimes around the world overwhelmingly favour citizens of wealthy countries, especially Westerners. This state of affairs is a reflection of the influence the West wields over developing countries.

Insisting on the principle of reciprocity is one way to address this imbalance of power on the global stage. For a country like South Africa, introducing reciprocal visas can serve as a tool to reaffirm its sovereignty and demonstrate its determination to resist foreign pressures. It is a way to assert its place in the international arena.

As South Africans, we have a choice: to continue to allow our policies to be shaped by others, or take control and insist on fairness and mutual respect in global diplomacy.

The decision to introduce reciprocal visas may be seen by some as a bold move, but in reality, it is a necessary step towards achieving the respect and recognition that South Africa deserves. It is time to prioritise sovereignty over convenience and ensure that our nation is treated with the same regard that we extend to others.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.