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Free movement of people and goods across national borders is one way to promote development and boosting the level of integration between the different economies and their people.

It quickens business too; engenders mutual understanding between countries and their people while promoting peace and unity. It promotes tourism as well.

One way to facilitate free movement of people is to remove visa requirements between countries. Another way is to introduce a common passport. Yet another is to create a uni-visa system under which, for example, a tourist travelling to a region would only need a visa to enter one country and use that visa to visit other countries in that region.

Zimbabwe has led the way in Sadc by scrapping visa requirements for citizens of the region. Following that decision, announced by Foreign Affairs and International Trade Minister, Frederick Shava on Wednesday, nationals of all of the 16 member countries of the regional bloc no longer need a visa to be able to travel to our country.

Minister Shava said:
“Regarding the implementation of the visa exemption among Sadc Member States and the facilitation of free movement of Sadc citizens within the region, I wish to highlight that Zimbabwe is the first and only country that has exempted all Sadc Member States from visa requirements, other Sadc Member States are undertaking internal processes to ensure that Sadc citizens can travel freely in the region.”

The Government has taken a bold decision that demonstrates its good neighbourliness which other Sadc member states are encouraged to follow.

Indeed, and as we have noted earlier, a visa can act as a barrier to progress and its removal can stimulate progress.

By scrapping visa requirements for Sadc citizens, Zimbabwe is also demonstrating its intention to contribute to the deepening of integration of the region. We appreciate that other countries in the region are going through their own internal processes that should lead to them following the Zimbabwean example.

There are obvious, unique issues that individual countries may need to consider before taking a decision. But given that a number of countries in the region already required no visa for visitors from the region, we don’t expect the internal processes to be protracted.

We urge them to expedite their processes so that our people can move as freely as possible; so that business can move as freely as possible within the region. When that happens regional integration would have deepened, development will occur and peace and unity are engendered.

We take the scrapping of the visa requirement by Zimbabwe as the first step not only in a wider system of scrapping of visa requirements by other Sadc members but also towards the adoption of the Sadc Uni-Visa. Happily, there is progress towards that, said Minister Shava.

“It may also be recalled that as part of Sadc’s broader regional integration agenda, efforts towards a Sadc Uni-Visa are ongoing,” he said.

“I am happy to note that through the efforts of our Ministry of Home Affairs and cultural heritage and the Department of Immigration, Zimbabwe is now part of the five countries that are part of the uni-visa pilot project.”

Sadc is a big tourism destination, attracting millions of visitors from across the world. Sadc is also a land of vast investment opportunities. For the millions of tourists to freely visit the region to spend their money here and for the foreign investment to flow into the region, it is important for visa requirements to be eased. The Sadc Uni-Visa would be key in that thrust.

For that reason, we implore Sadc members to expeditiously implement the pilot project leading to the introduction of the single visa for foreign visitors to the region.