UK minister throws tourism a lifeline with signal SA will be off ‘red list’

The UK government has given the clearest indication yet that it will remove SA from its list of “red” countries that are deemed dangerous for travel because of Covid-19, something that will provide massive relief to the tourism industry ahead of the summer.

Speaking to Business Day at the end of her visit to SA, Lesotho and Eswatini, Vicky Ford, the minister responsible for Africa in the UK’s foreign, commonwealth & development office, said she had been reassured by SA scientists that the Beta variant, which caused SA to be banned from most countries late in 2020, is no longer present, which “takes one of the main concerns away”...