Mozambique

April 2005

  
No-Visa agreement signed with South Africa, (Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique, 2005-04-15):-As from next Monday, any Mozambican citizen wishing to visit South Africa for up to 30 days may do so without an entry visa. The visa waiver agreement was signed in the South African capital, Tshwane, on Friday, by Mozambican Interior Minister Jose Pacheco, and his South African counterpart, Nosiviwe Mapisa- Nqakula, at a ceremony witnessed by the presidents of the two countries, Armando Guebuza and Thabo Mbeki. The no-visa agreement is reciprocal. Thus South African tourists and businessmen wishing to visit Mozambique will no longer have to apply for entry visas. The agreement is the culmination of a long process of negotiations that began under the previous Mozambican government, led by President Joaquim Chissano. Entry visas were not cheap: a visa allowing multiple entries to South Africa for a Mozambican citizen for six months cost 430 rands (about 70 US dollars). South Africans visiting Mozambique paid 85 rands for a single-entry visa. Only people holding diplomatic and service passports were exempt from these fees. Although the maximum period for a visa-free visit is set at 30 days, the two interior ministers told journalists that the period may be extended if there is a good reason (such as medical treatment). But people who overstay without any such reason will find their names put on a list of people who lose the right to enter the other country at all. The Mozambican and South African governments expect that the suppression of visas will lead to a substantial increase in tourist traffic between the two countries, with economic gains for both. Business visits can now be made on the spur of the moment, without the bureaucratic requirements of seeking a visa first. According to South African data made available at Friday's ceremony, 441,997 Mozambicans visited South Africa legally in 2003 and 2004.  
South African Migration Project (SAMP) - Queen's University - http://www.queensu.ca/samp