dear Minister Gigaba,
I believe the visa regulations for visiting South Africa with children are going to be changed again.

Can you please also look into reviewing the process for Permanent Residents in South Africa to have to travel with their PR certificates?

This process lends itself to abuse and corruption: There are many permanent residents who have had pr in South Africa for a long time. The 'certificates' which were issued before 2015 were mere printouts, without even a coat of arms and a smudged little stamp. Many people would have filed it away and never used it again, because the pr was stamped into the passport.

Now permanent residents get asked for the certificate every time when travelling -- and neither the stamp in the passport nor a South African ID book are accepted as alternatives.

What's worse: if you lose your pr certicate and have to apply for a new one, it COSTS AS MUCH to have it RE-ISSUED than if you would apply for permanent residence FROM SCRATCH.
There is no logic behind that...
Finally, the entire permanent residence process has been outsourced to VFS Global which
1. does not answer emails
2. employs telephonic consultants who do not know the necessary information to give to callers
3. charge a fortune for merely re-issuing a pr certificate
4. and on top of that says it will take 10 to 12 months for a re-issue?

This is a really stressful situation, especially for many permanent residents from other African countries who do not have money to constantly phone in or pay for having a certificate re- issued.

I hope this situation can be improved?

Yours sincerely
Ute Kuhlmann