'Chaos' at French Consulate

2007-10-11 09:09

Francois du Plessis

Johannesburg - For many South Africans wanting to travel to France to support the Springboks in the semi-finals and hopefully, the finals, their last-minute arrangements have become a nightmare.

The reason?

The French Consulate in Johannesburg announced on Wednesday that owing to a flood of applications for visas, everyone would have to hand in their applications and come to collect them in person.

Subsequently, travel agents and courier services have had to contact clients throughout the country, some of whom were supposed to fly to France on Friday, to get to the consulate as soon as possible, and apply in person.

The consulate deals with visa applications from Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, North West and the Free State, while the French Consulate in Cape Town deals with those of the Northern Cape, Eastern Cape and Western Cape.

'Huge volume'

"We've arranged our rugby tickets, plane tickets, accommodation, everything - but now two days before our departure we have to come and stand in the queue to get our visas, which we asked our travel agent to attend to a month ago," an upset Johan de Vos said at the consulate in Johannesburg on Wednesday.

He and his wife Elmirie had to cancel all their meetings on Wednesday and rush through from Pretoria, after their travel agent had informed them of the situation.

"It's absolute chaos. I hope this teaches them a lesson for the 2010 World Cup Soccer tournament," added Janine Youngleson of Johannesburg.

Even people travelling to France on business had to queue for hours on Wednesday for their visas.

"We're in the same boat as the rest. Usually, our visas are dealt with quite speedily, but it's clear we're going to have to wait a long time," Nazeera Rajah said.

A staff member at one of the accredited World Cup tournament travel agencies told Beeld newspaper that in his view the consulate was making things more difficult for itself, by turning away travel agents and couriers.

"For example, instead of processing the 15 passports and visa applications that one courier delivers, an additional fourteen people now come through the door. I have to explain to my client in the Bushveld why he suddenly has to come chasing through to Johannesburg."

Tony Dasilva, an independent travel consultant at e-Travel, said hundreds of visa applications could not be processed because of the huge volume at the consulate.

"Many of the packages, some of which cost up to R60 000, can't be refunded, and people are losing big money."

The French Consul said in a statement on Wednesday night that he was delighted at the increased interest in his country, reports Sapa.

The consulate was doing its best to get through the large number of applications.

"However, an increase in the number of group applications submitted at the last moment, especially by local travel agents, placed great pressure on our technically-limited ability to process applications," the statement read.

The consulate was dealing with applications based on scheduled dates of departure, and would until further notice give precedence to individual applications.

- Beeld