In a development that has had supporters of long queues everywhere cheering South Africa on, about 90% of our immigration officers - those who man the passport control stations at airports and ports - are set to go on strike tomorrow over management non-performance.
They have a point: the bosses at Home Affairs have been worse than useless lately, and the grievances of the strikers-to-be stem from bosses’ failure to implement their own recommendations. On the other hand, if everyone strikes who says they’ll strike, then the immigration queues to enter South Africa are forecast to back up somewhere around southern …
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Alert! There’s a cautionary tale in The Star on the pitfalls of inter-African travel to Vic Falls. A journalist by the name of John Grant was taken for various rides with his wife, and ended up paying almost triple what he originally budgeted. He still enjoyed the trip, but it had to smart a little!
Read more: Falling for the Falls by John Grant.
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Sometimes travel writing can get a bit depressing, as when someone who wants to see some African wildlife does a bit of online research and comes away “convinced that arranging a safari is best left to professionals”; or when someone else, who has actually seen some African wildlife, calls, say, the rhino “a grotesque throwback”.
Utter poppycock in both cases, sez I - a self-tour of the Kruger National Park is highly doable, on the one hand (click the tag to get started!), and the only thing that could possibly be “throwback” about a person encountering a rhino in …
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South Africa’s Department of Home Affairs recently suspended all transit visa requirements - meaning anyone can now pass through South Africa to another country without having to do any SA paperwork - and has also signalled its intention to extend the length of work permits for foreigners deployed here by multinationals.
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A B&B that caters to the gay travel market in Cape Town’s leafy suburb of Oranjezicht has been allowed to keep its “men only” status.
This after a challenge to the Amsterdam Guest House’s exclusionary accommodation policy was brought before South Africa’s Commission for Gender Equality, by - in a move that engenders new degrees of befuddlement in matters of political correctness - an organization purporting to represent gay interests, and going by the name of the GLA, or the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Party.
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Alert! British Airways is set to double its number of flights between London and Cape Town for the upcoming antipodean summer season, always a busy time of year for travel to South Africa.
According to reports, the airline has been granted long-sought landing rights for two extra flights per week, and it expects to have no difficulty filling its streamlined cabins with Brits sick of winter and craving some vitamin D, courtesy the African sun, in a few months’ time.
Follow the story: iAfrica.com
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Flights leaving South African airports for the UK are departing on time, despite the heightened security at Heathrow Airport, because of yesterday’s terror alert. SA Logue contacted SAA, BA, Virgin, KLM, Air France and Lufthansa, and didn’t hear of any problems outside of normal airport glitches. So if you’ve a flight bound for Britain, go ahead and board it!
Travelling out of the UK, meanwhile, is a bit more complicated, because of the backlog that needs to be cleared after yesterday’s flight cancellations. Expect significant delays if you’re intending to leave for South Africa anytime today or this weekend.
Follow the …
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For South Africans, overhearing the word “Singita” can cause the complexion to flash momentarily green. It is the ultimate in safari luxury, with a nightly price tag for bed, breakfast and the Big Five that’s far beyond those of ordinary means.
Now Singita - along with its nearby Kruger Park rival, Londolozi - has made it on to the Forbes list of the world’s most expensive hotels, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Dubai’s Burj al Arab and Sandy Lane in Barbados.
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Alert! From this Saturday, South African Airways will begin shrink-wrapping the baggage of its passengers who travel through Johannesburg International Airport. The first wrapping machines - which can spin a web of plastic around a suitcase faster than you can say “Bilbo Baggins” - will be installed in the airline’s domestic terminal first, with its international terminal coming online by 15 July.
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South African Airways (SAA), which recently joined the Star Alliance of airlines, has played on its SA connections to woo a doubles partner in international sport. The Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), which looks after men’s tennis - and is currently headed by a South African, Etienne de Villiers - has proclaimed our national carrier “the official airline of the ATP”.
Tennis for Little People
Although Etienne and his new business friends are quite diminutive in stature (see photo), and given to juvenile antics with sports paraphernalia that …
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