Regulatory Burdenpartially implementedQuick WinOperation Vulindlela / SONA 2026

e-Visa System Rollout for Tourism and Business

Theme: tourism_visa_reform

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Assessment

Growth Impact4/5

Feasibility4/5

Responsible: Department of Home Affairs / SA Tourism

Feasibility Assessment

Operationally complex — hijacked building expropriation sits at the intersection of property rights, criminal law, and urban planning. HDA has limited balance sheet to acquire at scale. Political and legal contestation around expropriation is high. Long-term pilot in Johannesburg CBD provides some operational learning but citywide and national scaling faces significant obstacles.

Description

South Africa's e-visa system — enabling online visa applications without requiring in-person biometric capture at a DHA mission for initial applications — is intended to substantially reduce the friction that has suppressed tourism and business visitor arrivals. The National Tourism Sector Strategy targets restoring visitor numbers toward the 2019 pre-COVID baseline of 15 million arrivals annually; tourism contributes approximately 2.9% of GDP directly and supports over 700,000 jobs. As of early 2026, the e-visa system has been launched for a limited set of nationalities and visa categories. Expanding e-visa eligibility to the 10 highest-volume source markets would generate an estimated 1-2 million additional annual arrivals.

"The Portfolio Committee received a briefing on acquired, abandoned and hijacked buildings — highlighting barriers including complex legal processes to expropriate hijacked properties and insufficient HDA funding." — Portfolio Committee on Human Settlements, February 2026