South Africa resents UK decision to keep it on Covid Red List

SATSA (South African Tourism Services Association), South Africa’s main inbound tourism industry body, is lobbying politicians in the UK to remove the country from its coronavirus travel Red List, claiming that it is not compatible with scientific evidence and ruining relations between countries.

Bloomberg on Friday (13) cited Satsa saying on August 10 that the curbs were based on the discovery of the virus’s Beta variant in South Africa even though the occurrences of that mutation there is now minimal.

Satsa represents 1,350 businesses.

The curbs are feared to jeopardize South Africa’s tourism industry, particularly because the UK is a major contributor to that segment of the African nation’s economy. In 2019, the UK accounted for 17 per cent of South Africa’s 2.6 million foreign tourists, making it the largest source market, Bloomberg added.

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Putting South Africa on the Red List (happened about eight months ago) means tourists from the UK would have to quarantine for 10 days at their own expenses in hotels picked up by the government when they return. Vaccinated travellers from other countries like France, Germany, the US and some other key markets can go home from South Africa without having to undergo quarantine, Bloomberg added.

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It also said that the restrictions imposed by the UK are contradictory to its efforts to cement closer links with South Africa following Brexit.

'More like fortress Britain'

“It’s incompatible with the UK’s rhetoric about investment in South Africa [and] trade with South Africa,” Christine Thompson, a government relations and public affairs consultant advising Satsa, said on a webinar. “There is huge degree of resentment. This whole approach is very incompatible with the aspirations of global Britain and is more like fortress Britain.”

The UK transport department, on the other hand, said the country’s top priority is to protect public health. “Decisions on our traffic-light system are kept under regular review and are informed by the latest risk assessment from the Joint Biosecurity Centre and wider public health factors,” it added.

According to Satsa, the UK’s travel restrictions are putting in peril an industry that gives jobs to 1.5 million people directly or indirectly and contributes about 80 billion rands ($5.5 billion) to the South African economy in a year. The restrictions are also endangering the viability of key conservation areas like national parks, the body said.

Satsa also said that while South Africa has averaged 10,169 Covid infections a day over the past week, the seven-day average in the UK, which has a similar population size as the African nation, is about 28,000.