The announcement this week by home affairs minister Malusi Gigaba, supposedly easing visa restrictions, was blasted as confusing and well short of requirements by the tourism industry. But SA Tourism boss Sisa Ntshona says it's a step in the right direction. "It's the first immigration reform for a very long time and starts the process to where we can be much smoother, more predictable and more efficient in processing people in and out of the country," he says. When the former investment banker became CEO of the state tourism body two years ago, draconian visa regulations introduced by Gigaba in 2015 had become a nightmare for the industry. Gigaba insisted they were necessary to counter child trafficking, and Ntshona gave him the benefit of the doubt. "I sincerely want to believe that no-one wakes up and says, 'I'm going to deliberately hold this sector back'," he said at the time. It's his job to "take an optimistic line", he says. And so he sees Gigaba's announcement as "an opport...
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