The Democratic Alliance (DA) welcomes the announcement by the Minister of Home Affairs that South African citizens may return to countries where they reside, work and study.
However, the DA calls on Minister Aaron Motsoaledi to urgently issue a directive in this regard.
An email to the covid19travel@dha.org.za address provided to process requests to return overseas still refers to the existing directives and states that Home Affairs is working on amended directives and regulations. Another automated response indicates applicants will need wait up to 5 working days for a decision. This means these South Africans are still not free to leave.
If the intention is to wait until 1 June 2020 for level 3 regulations to be in place, then it could be two weeks before affected persons may leave. This is simply unacceptable, as the affected persons are losing an estimated R2m a day on top of R60m in the last month alone.
Provided their travel documentation is in order and the embassy, diplomatic or consular representative has confirmed right to resident and provided confirmation that the person will be permitted to return, they should be able to depart without delay.
Currently foreign nationals and South Africans with medical emergencies, dual citizenship, permanent residency, those that are family of a foreigner may leave. This means that a dual national or foreign national have more rights under the current regulations and directives than a South African citizen.
The DA will continue to fight for the rights of South Africans unfairly discriminated against by irrational regulations and directives.
Click here to contribute to the DA’s legal action challenging irrational and dangerous elements of the hard lockdown in court