UK’s red list stubbornness regarding SA travellers makes no sense

Amid growing pressure, the UK government on Sunday appeared to have softened its stance on South Africa, despite continuing to place SA on the red list – citing the presence of the Covid-related beta variant for restricting travel between the two countries.

Except, that while the UK clings to the idea of the beta variant, it’s the delta variant which currently has a 99% hold in South Africa, according to Prof Tulio de Oliveira from the Centre for Epidemic Response and Innovation.

With billions lost by the SA tourism industry due to the ban, International Relations and Cooperation Minister Naledi Pandor has pledged that government – working with other key stakeholders – would intensify pressure on the UK to get South Africa off the red list.

Commenting on the UK’s sustained ban on SA, Isabel Potgieter, spokesperson for the UK high commission to South Africa, said many countries took decisions on border measures “to protect public health”.

“We do not want the travel restrictions between South Africa and the UK to be in place any longer than necessary,” said Potgieter.

“We welcome recent positive developments in South Africa – with cases going down, data on variants of concern improving and vaccination rising. We hope current positive trends will continue and will allow red-listing to be removed as soon as conditions allow.”

Potgieter would not elaborate on why the UK was sticking to its beta variant guns.

Pandor said the government was puzzled by the UK’s decision to keep South Africa on the red list of countries facing stringent restrictions and high costs when entering the UK. Families and business people in both countries were “shocked at this continued exclusion, especially given South Africa’s progress in combating the Covid pandemic as evidenced by the rapid declining infection rates due to a robust vaccination programme and excellent science”.

She was optimistic that the UK government would realise that its decision was “not harming just the tourism industry but other businesses from both countries”.

Pandor’s call for the lifting of the restrictions came as UK House of Lords peer and anti-apartheid activist Lord Peter Hain, exerted pressure on Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Hain told The Citizen: “Given Johnson’s lifting of restrictions on travel to countries like Pakistan, there’s no justification at all for keeping SA on the UK red list.”

The SA tourism industry has also expressed concern at the UK stance.

SA Tourism Services Association chief executive officer (CEO) David Frost said: “This is a kick in the teeth for 1.5 million South African tourism workers who were relying on UK visitors this spring.

“The UK government needs to urgently reconsider this classification to avoid irreparable harm to a relationship with a key ally and trading partner.”

Association of Southern African Travel Agents CEO Otto de Vries said the organisation was “deeply disappointed by the outcome of the UK review of the traffic light system”.

“In the past month, Austria, Germany, France, Switzerland, Finland, Ireland, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Spain and Seychelles have relaxed travel restrictions for fully vaccinated South Africans, with Mauritius following suit soon.

“These countries highlighted that being fully vaccinated against Covid exempts travellers from mandatory quarantines.

“There is clearly no scientific reason that justifies keeping South Africa on the contentious UK red list for travel.”

– brians@citizen.co.za