US embassy cable - 05MAPUTO510

UNCLAS MAPUTO 000510 
 
SIPDIS 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: CVIS, PGOV, SMIG, MZ 
SUBJECT: MOZAMBIQUE AND SOUTH AFRICA SIGN AGREEMENT TO 
ABOLISH VISAS FOR SHORT-TERM VISITS 
 
1. (U) On April 15, Mozambique and South Africa signed a 
bilateral agreement to eliminate visas for Mozambican and 
South African citizens traveling to either country for up to 
30 days. The agreement was signed in Pretoria by the 
Ministers of Interior of each country and witnessed by 
Presidents Armando Guebuza of Mozambique and Thabo Mbeki of 
South Africa. The agreement eliminated, as of April 18, 
2005, the 430 Rand ($72) visa application fee required by 
South Africa of Mozambican citizens. It also eliminated the 
85 Rand ($14) visa fee required by Mozambique of South 
African citizens applying at the Mozambican consulate, and 
the 170 Rand ($28) fee required of South African applicants 
at the border. Instead of visas, citizens of each country 
crossing the Mozambican-South African border from either side 
will receive a stamp in their passport authorizing a 30-day 
stay. With this agreement, Mozambique joins a long list of 
countries that are exempt from visas to South Africa. This 
list includes all of South Africa's immediate neighbors 
except for Zimbabwe. 
 
2. (SBU) While the agreement will facilitate travel for both 
nationalities, the agreement is particularly beneficial to 
Mozambican citizens. Mozambicans previously had to make an 
application at the South African High Commission for each 
six-month visa, application fees were roughly 30 percent of 
Mozamibque's per capita income, and Mozambicans could not 
make applications at the border. While the refusal rate for 
Mozambican visa applicants had been low -- in a conversation 
with Emboff, the Consul at the South African High Commission 
estimated the 2004 refusal rate at less than 10 percent -- 
the high visa fees encouraged significant levels of illegal 
immigration. Recent studies by the International Office for 
Migration and other researchers have indicated that smugglers 
at the Mozambican-South African border typically charge 150 
to 200 Rand (half the cost of a visa) to their customers. 
Customers included not only poor Mozambicans, but also 
migrants from other countries for which South Africa requires 
visas, including Somalia, Tanzania, Nigeria, Pakistan, India 
and Bangladesh. 
 
3. (SBU) Comment. The abolition of visa requirements will 
render obsolete the common local practice of purchasing 
employment papers, bank statements and ownership documents in 
order to obtain a visa to South Africa. The new rules may, 
however, lead to increased purchases by third-country 
nationals of Mozambican passports as a means of obtaining 
entry into South Africa. It is already quite easy to 
purchase legal but improperly obtained Mozambican passports 
from low-ranking officials at the Mozambican Department of 
Migration, or from connected South Asian-Mozambican criminal 
syndicates. South Asians, Chinese, and East Africans with 
what appear to be questionably obtained passports 
occasionally make visa applications at the U.S. Embassy (and 
get rejected). Since Mozambique is now the only country 
bordering the Indian Ocean besides Mauritius whose citizens 
do not require entry visas to South Africa, its status as a 
magnet for immigrants from South Asia and other African 
countries is likely to increase. 
 
4. (SBU) Comment Continued: The abolition of visa 
requirements is a big policy victory for President Guebuza, 
earning praise from journalists and from everyday 
Mozambicans. The visa agreement with South Africa, signed 
two months after his inauguration, is the first publicly 
known foreign policy accomplishment of his administration, 
and is easily advertised as proof that Guebuza is delivering 
the goods for the average Mozambican. In fact, nearly all of 
the groundwork for this policy change was carried out by the 
outgoing Chissano Administration. In September 2004, during 
the presidential election campaign season, the GRM had issued 
statements on the imminent elimination of visas to South 
Africa. Nothing came of the announcements, however, and visa 
policy changes with South Africa had fallen from public view 
until news of the upcoming agreement hit the newspapers last 
week. End Comment. 
LALIME