Tourists Bemoan Shabby Treatment

I WRITE, respectfully, to protest in the strongest possible terms at the treatment which was meted out to my family and I during a recent aborted attempt to visit your country.

We decided a short time ago to visit Namibia as we were informed by friends of its unique beauty and attractions. We planned a short Easter visit of seven days and intended to travel to Windhoek and then on to Sossusvlei and Swakopmund. We booked hotels independently and hired a car. My 12-year-old daughter eagerly looked forward to a holiday of a lifetime. Little did we think that it was soon to become our worst nightmare.We are resident in Dar es Salaam. My daughter and I are citizens of Ireland and my wife is Bulgarian. On booking flights, we were told that there were no visa restrictions to travel to Namibia as we were all EU citizens. Namibia does not have an embassy in Dar es Salaam. On 6 April, we left Dar es Salaam and flew to Johannesburg for an onward connection to Windhoek. On arrival in Johannesburg we were informed that we could not travel to Windhoek as my wife did not have a visa. Obviously this came as a shock to us as we had been informed otherwise.We then called the Namibian High Commission in Pretoria and explained the situation to your representative there. She said that a visa could be issued to us in Pretoria. It was explained to your representative that my wife was unable to travel to the commission as she could not legitimately leave the airport without a South African visa. We were told that it would be in order for me to bring her passport and photos and that the visa would be processed that afternoon in time for us to catch an evening flight. We were told that the High Commissioner had been made aware of our situation and had agreed and we expressed our deep gratitude.With very little time at my disposal, I then made a rushed taxi journey to the Namibian High Commission in Church Street in Pretoria. I was greeted at the gate by a security staff member who refused me admittance. I asked to speak to someone inside and he put me through by telephone to a receptionist. She too, refused to admit me. She tried to connect me to the Visa section however there was no answer. I was told that the Section Staff were at lunch and would return later. At approximately 15h00 your representative, Mr Shatiwa, returned from lunch. He bluntly informed me that he would not issue me with a visa for my wife and denied that anyone had spoken to me earlier or had promised to issue me with a visa. He further told me that it would take three days for a visa to issue and that he would not issue one to her without her being present. He refused point blank to listen to my appeal for help and either failed, or didn’t care, to appreciate the difficulties we were in. Having spent nearly one and a half hours at the commission, I eventually gave up and returned to the airport to inform my wife and daughter that we would be unable to travel. You can imagine that they were extremely distraught and upset, as was I, having been refused the visa. At this stage we were faced with spending the night sleeping on the floor at Johannesburg airport as there was no other alternative. The following day we made different arrangements, at great personal expense, to visit another more welcoming country. Following my family’s experience, experience I have a number of questions to which I would like a response: Why on earth, in this day and age, can visas not be issued on arrival in Windhoek?Why do citizens of the EU require a visa in the first instance? Why were we misinformed by the Namibian High Commission that they would issue a visa when we arrived in Johannesburg?Is it normal to treat visitors to your country in such an unhelpful and, frankly, uncaring and hostile way?I frankly still cannot understand why we could not have been issued with a visa in Pretoria. If this is how you treat foreign tourists to your country I think you reflect again. I would at some stage in the future hope to visit Namibia with my family. I hope that when I do, I am met with a more friendly face than I experienced this time and that your visa procedures facilitate speedy and easy access to your wonderful and beautiful county.Finally, the Namibian High Commission website in Pretoria announces: ‘Get your visa fast, easy and hassle-free’. You can draw your own conclusions. I clearly wouldn’t agree. Dermot HanwayVia e-mail