South Africa to grant Nigerians 5-year visas

President Jacob Zuma of South Africa

The South African High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mr Lulu Mnguni, on Wednesday announced his government’s decision to commence the issuance of 5-year visas to Nigerian professionals, business people and other frequent fliers.

Mnguni also diclosed in Lagos that his government was now prepared to eliminate the difficulties usually faced by Nigerians when seeking South African visas.

The High Commissioner also said that his government was moving away
from having political diplomacy to more of economic diplomacy with
Nigeria.

“There has been growing concerns from both Nigeria and South Africa on
the issue of visas. There have been complaints by Nigerians on how they are treated when seeking visas.

“Our President has indicated that Nigeria and South Africa need to
intervene by making it easier for our nationals to have visas to our two countries.

“We came to an agreement that business people and frequent fliers
between South Africa and Nigeria will qualify for long-term visas of
two, three, and five years.

“We have totally moved from political diplomacy to economic
diplomacy. And to promote this new economic diplomacy, there needs to be a smooth movement of people between our two countries,’’ he said.

Mnguni said that he had made a proposal to his government for the
recruitment of more staff, so as to be able to promptly attend to the
demand of Nigerians for visas to South Africa.

According to him, Nigeria and South Africa’s inability to promote
people-to-people relationships is responsible for the uninformed tension between them.

The High Commissioner, therefore, said that it was imperative for both
countries to “unplug some of the irritants’’ that have undermined
their cohesion.

“We need a friendship that resides with our people. Nigeria and South
Africa need to criticise each other in a constructive way.

“We need to look at how we can unplug some of the irritants that have
undermined our cohesion,’’ he added.