South Africa starts e-visa for Indians on a trial basis

The Tourism Ministry of South Africa has declared that there would be a provision for online visa application for Indian travellers. Online visa applications will also be open for China from February, albeit on a pilot basis. This provides a great opportunity for travellers to reach the great South African lands to experience an adventure of a lifetime.
The e-visa has now been launched in an effort to attract Indian tourists for 2020. The e-visa for Indians has currently been launched on a trial basis but is expected to officially come into effect by April 1, 2020.

The South African Tourism Minister, Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane said that the Ministry of Home Affairs has permitted this online launch, and India and China have been identified as the two markets for it to begin with. However, according to him, the first phase was launched in New Zealand, and they received all the feedback from there, which is helping them to make improvements in the system.

She further said that the reason for it being in a pilot run is to check whether there are any glitches in technology and whether they can easily access documents through the system. Depending on this, the process will finally be implemented fully on April 1, 2020.

Apart from this, direct flights could also be a possibility in the future, as the country is planning to invite Indian carriers for the same. They are hoping for direct flights from Mumbai. So, any interested Indian carrier would be provided with a license to start direct flights to South Africa.