The South African High Commissioner to Nigeria, Thamsanqa Dennis Mseleku, has explained the rationale behind the country’s new visa policy for Nigerians
Mseleku said the scheme would help the country identify genuine businessmen seeking business opportunities in South Africa.
Earlier this year, the South African government approved a 10-year multiple-entry VISA for Nigerians.
The High Commissioner said in an interview on Arise TV, monitored by THE WHISTLER that with the policy, genuine businesses will not have their visa applications lost in transit.
He said, “With regards to the visa scheme, yes indeed what we have said is what we will do. We want to identify genuine Nigerian business people. The Chief Executive Officers, the Chairpersons of companies, the Chief Operating Officers, and the regular travelers not only that from companies but regular travelers and business people so that we can actually give them long-term visas so that they don’t have to come and occupy the system because we have many applicants that queue up in the system and then they get lost in the process.
“That is why we are actually streamlining in some way for business people because we want to do business. That is part of our integration strategy.”
Mseleku also spoke on the BRICS Summit scheduled for August 21-24, 2023 in the country in which the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, will miss out over the Russia-Ukraine war.
Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa’s President and President Xi Jinping of China will attend the 15th BRICS Summit.
The five BRICS countries are Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. The block has become a threat to the G7 led by the United States.
Around 69 countries have been invited to the summit, including all African countries.
The High Commissioner said, “The expansion of BRICS started as a discussion at the founding of BRICS itself. In 2009 you remember there was a Brazil, Russia, India and China and we came in to say, no you cannot exclude the African continent and perhaps we will want to inject that kind of discussion.
“We want to be invited to BRICS in order to ensure that we speak for the African continent, so, that more countries can actually participate in BRICS. So, that was when the expansion started by us being included in the first place.
He boasted that the advantage of joining BRICS is that it makes up 27 per cent of the current world GDP adding “We are expanding the market.”
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