Almost incidentally, but nonetheless very important, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced a major change for the travel industry this week. From now on, a negative PCR test will no longer be required for international travelers who are fully vaccinated. Thanks to this further opening step, Rhulani Safari Lodge is also looking forward to the normalization in the tourism sector and warmly welcomes all international guests.

"For me personally, this is the decisive step towards normalization," says Rhulani's owner Rolf Steiner. With the omission of proof of a negative PCR test, travelers no longer have to incur in additional travel costs for a test, and the risk for healthy people to be denied the trip before departure, because of a positive test result for whatever reason, has now gone.

International travelers from Europe, Australia, America and South America are among Rhulani’s regular customers. As Rolf says, even in the most difficult months of the pandemic we had guests from all over the world. But not so many. "We did feel that travelers weigh up very carefully how much risk and cost they want to take on for themselves and their families. For example, for a European family it was possible last year to travel within Europe with a valid vaccine certificate but with no test requirements, so the desire to make a trip to South Africa was postponed until things get easier here too".

Travelers now simply have to show a "valid vaccination certificate" upon entry. Unvaccinated people can continue to enter the country after presenting a negative PCR test.

South Africa is currently in the so-called "Alert Level 1", which is the lowest level. This means that traveling around the country is not a problem and you can fully enjoy your stay. In Rhulani, guests are outdoors in nature. The pandemic is far away. However, the “COVID Best Practice Guidelines” for hotels and safety measures to protect our guests remain in force.

 

New COVID-19 entry rules for international travelers

Partial re-opening of borders (as updated on 22 March 2022)
(a) International air travel is restricted to the following airports-(i) OR Tambo International Airport:
(ii) King Shaka International Airport;
(iii) Cape Town International Airport:
(iv) Lanseria International Airport; and
(v) Kruger Mpumalanga International Airport.
(b) Long-haul flight departures and landings at the airports listed in paragraph (a) are permitted during the hours of curfew as provided for in regulation 68(1).
(c) All international travellers arriving at the Ports of Entry listed in paragraph (a) who are-
(i) fully vaccinated must upon arrival at the Port of Entry, produce a valid vaccination certificate; and
(ii) unvaccinated must upon arrival at the Port of Entry, provide a valid certificate of a negative COVID-19 test, recognised by the World Health Organisation, which was obtained not more than 72 hours before the date of travel.
(d) In the event of the traveller's failure to submit a certificate as proof of a negative COVID-19 test, the traveller will be required to do an antigen test on arrival at his or her own cost and in the event of a traveller testing positive for COVID-19, he or she will be required to isolate him or herself at his or her own cost, for a period of 10 days.
(e) Outbound travellers from South Africa must comply with the requirements of the country of destination.