Don’t let diplomacy hurt SA’s tourism

When it comes to “cut off your nose to spite your face” foreign policy, South Africa seems to have few global peers. And we’re not talking about the current cuddling up to Moscow that has the US and Europe so worried.

While the ANC has thrown its hand in with the Brics (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) group of countries economically, it has also swung towards them, notably on foreign policy issues, despite its public commitment to non-alignment.

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This is apparent in the “One China” policy, which recognises the Chinese Communist Party as the representative of the Chinese people.

However, Taiwan is allowed to continued to trade with us – and this is a significant relationship – as well as maintain diplomatic offices here.

Yet, despite this, our government makes it difficult for Taiwanese citizens to get visas to enter South Africa, whether they are coming as businesspeople or tourists.

And that may hurt us, because the Taiwanese are not only avid travellers, they are also big spenders – just the sort of visitor our tourist sector needs to get back on its feet after the devastation of Covid.

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Diplomatic sympathies are understandable, but hurting your own economy in service of these is not logical.