SHARRON HAMMOND and STAFF WRITER, Nelspruit | Tuesday 7.45pm.
MEMBER countries of the Southern Africa Development Community are planning to drop their international borders and unite to form one region within the next 30 years, department of home affairs chief migration officer Patrick Matlou said on Tuesday.
Addressing a public hearing in Nelspruit, Mpumalanga, on the national white paper on international migration, Matlou said SADC members two weeks ago signed a tourism protocol agreeing that their citizens could enter South Africa visa-free for a 90-day period.
Although illegal immigration is a problem, Matlou said, South Africa wants to encourage certain types of legal immigration. “We’re interested in having many more students study here, especially from SADC countries, and the education department believes it can earn R23-billion a year from this,” he explained.
Calling for public input on international migration laws, Matlou proposed that tourists should be given easy access to the country, as should business people looking at investing in the South African economy.
He added, however, that before any of the SADC countries can drop their borders to allow more flexible migration on the sub-continent, their economies will have to be equalised as much as possible.
* Meanwhile, speaking ahead of a meeting of SADC military chiefs, the Angolan army on Tuesday said that military involvement in SADC member countries is appropriate to ensure stability in the region.
“We hope the entire region can be involved in creating the conditions needed to re-establish military security,” army spokesman General Joao Manuel Jota said. The SADC meeting, initially set for Tuesday morning, was rescheduled for the afternoon because of late arrivals by many of the invited military chiefs.