Taiwan has been in talks with Pretoria over changes to visa applications for Taiwanese wanting to travel to South Africa, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official said yesterday.
“We have raised the issue with South Africa,” Department of West Asian and African Affairs Director-General David Wang (王建業) said at a media briefing.
“We’ve passed on the feedback from the public and travel agencies to South Africa,” Wang said.
South Africa is conducting an internal review of its regulations regarding visas for Taiwanese and assessing the impact on revenues from tourism, Wang added.
Wang said he hopes that the South African government would make it easier for visitors to obtain visas, adding that South Africa is the most popular tourist destination in Africa for Taiwanese.
South Africa implemented rules in October last year that require visitors from countries that do not have visa-free entry and are not able to obtain a landing visa to submit applications and obtain visas in person.
Last month, the regulations were changed again, requiring children aged less than 18 years wanting to visit the country to also present birth certificates.
The rules were implemented as part of the South African government’s efforts to tighten visa regulations and address safety issues with regard to immigrants, Wang said.
The measures have led to a significant drop in South Africa’s tourism industry, according to media reports.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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