The Home Affairs ministry recently implemented new visa entry rules to prevent child trafficking.
Airlines and travel agents have expressed concern about the new regulations, saying it could have a negative impact on the tourism industry.
As soon as the announcement was made on June 1, South Africans – like we always do with everything else, took to social networks to express how “outraged” they are about the new rules. You have to love South Africans, we are always quick to complain when government does not seem to do much about the crime but when the government tries to do something, we still complain.
The regulations are part of the government’s efforts to reduce child trafficking, but people who oppose it say the new rules will have a negative impact on the tourism industry. And yes, we have been complaining about government not doing enough to protect our children; you would think for once South Africans would applaud the government for at least trying but no, that would not work for us.
The government estimates that 30 000 children are trafficked into South Africa annually, often for prostitution or labour.
Opposition parties, human rights groups and tourism firms say the true figure is much lower but aren’t we always complaining that the government takes a long time to act on important issues?
Now that they are acting – why are we moaning? Or must they wait until the situation is out of control, like all the other crimes we complain about before they do something?
One of the regulations stipulates that when only one parent is travelling with a child, the parent staying at home must provide an affidavit providing consent to the child travelling with the other parent, as well as copy of their identity document or passport. Now I understand that this is a lot of paperwork, especially in this country where we have a lot of single parents, but you need to think about what’s important.
I don’t think those who came up with this policy woke up one day and decided, “How can we make their lives miserable?”
I’m sure the Department of Home Affairs is not trying to be popular this time, they are just doing what they think is right because to me it doesn’t matter if the figure is much lower than what the government claims.
I feel that we get so much joy in complaining about what the government is doing or not doing, as a result we don’t even take the time to look at what they are proposing or implementing because we are always expecting the worst.
I understand that there will always be pros and cons with anything but you have to weigh the two and decide which one makes sense.
Some of the people complaining about the new visa rules say they are worried about the negative impact this will have on our already struggling economy – seeing that the tourism industry contributes a lot into it. With that said, we cannot ignore the fact that child trafficking is a problem, especially in this day and age where children go missing every day.
Now can we please complain about things worth complaining about – like the e-tolls and Nkandla and accept the visa rules.
