The decision to set up the brand-new facilitation centers and contract their running out to a private company had been told, “by none apart from our obligation to improve efficiencies and turnaround times,” he added.

The department has already introduced such centres in numerous its own high-volume missions overseas – including its missions in China, Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria – where it had formerly fought to cut back on lengthy queues and extended turn-around times, Gigaba said.

“We have visa facilitation centres at quite a few of our high-quantity assignments outside the country, and they have been working pretty successfully … bringing, I might add, to the success of our tourism stats over the past few years. It’s this good practice that we expect to roll out in South Africa.”

As stated by the Department of Home Affairs, the 11 visa facilitation centers will all be open and fully functional by the end of June. They comprise two centers in Gauteng province as well as the Western Cape, and one in every one of the other seven provinces.

Visa Permit Centre  Address Nelspruit,  Mpumalanga

Visa Facilitation Service Centres (VFS)