The Democratic Alliance in the Western Cape on Thursday welcomed home affairs minister Malusi Gigaba’s announcement that he was considering extending the 10-year multiple-entry visa for businesspeople to other markets outside Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (Brics).

Western Cape Economic Opportunities Minister Alan Winde said: “In the case of the new visa regulations‚ an independent study found that the economic cost of the new laws to South Africa could run as high as R10-billion‚ and place 21000 jobs on the line.”

Winde was responding to questions in the Western Cape Legislature about the volume of cases received by the Red Tape Reduction Unit.

Winde said he would also like to see the multiple-entry visa for businesspeople being “extended to business travellers from Africa and other strategic regions”.

“Here in the Western Cape‚ our Red Tape Reduction Unit has been working to streamline the visa applications of investors to ensure they can do business in the Western Cape‚” he said.

“The unit is analysing and comparing our visa regulations to that of our Brics partners as well as our key trading partners in Africa‚ such as Angola.”

Winde also told the assmebly that‚ since its launch in 2011‚ the Red Tape Reduction Unit had received 3 733 cases‚ and achieved a resolution rate of over 90%.

Just 58 of these remained unresolved cases as “the unit is awaiting feedback from the relevant government official‚ mainly at a national level”.

Over the past three months‚ most of the cases received came from residents in Bellville‚ Mitchells Plain and Khayelitsha.