Dubbed “FIFA Pass,” it will allow those who have purchased World Cup tickets through FIFA to get expedited visa appointments, as the administration continues to balance President Donald Trump’s tough-on-migration stance with an influx of global travelers for the soccer tournament. The “pass” in the name stands for “prioritized appointments scheduling system.”

“If you have a ticket for the World Cup, you can have prioritized appointments to get your visa,” said FIFA President Gianni Infantino, who was in the Oval Office with Trump on Monday to explain the new system. Turning to the U.S. president, he added: “You said it the very first time we met, Mr. President, America welcomes the world.”

Trump said Monday that he “strongly” encourages World Cup travelers to the U.S. to apply for their visas “right away.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the administration has dispatched more than 400 additional consular officers around the world to handle the demand for visas, and that in about 80 percent of the globe, travelers to the U.S. can get a visa appointment within 60 days.

Under the new system, those who have bought tickets through FIFA will be allowed to go through a “FIFA portal” that would help get their visa application and interview prioritized at the State Department.

“We’re going to do the same vetting as anybody else would get,” Rubio said. “The only difference here is, we’re moving them up in the queue.”

During next year’s World Cup, 104 games will be played in Canada, Mexico and the United States. Trump has made the success of the World Cup a top priority, and Infantino has been a frequent visitor to the White House while FIFA prepares for a Dec. 5 World Cup draw at the Kennedy Center, the arts institution now led and managed by Trump loyalists.

Trump once again floated the prospect of moving World Cup games out of one of its host cities if he deemed it to be unsafe, with the election of progressive activist Katie Wilson as mayor of Seattle who has talked about Trump-proofing the city and protecting its sanctuary city status for migrants. Seattle is one of the 11 host cities in the U.S. next year.

“If we think there’s gonna be sign of any trouble, I would ask Gianni to move that to a different city,” Trump said of Seattle.

The FIFA president stepped around the issue without committing to move host cities, noting that “I think safety and security is the number one priority for a successful World Cup” and that “we can see today that people have trust in the United States,” noting the number of tickets that have already been sold.

AP

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The United States has stopped processing most visas in Zimbabwe until further notice, its embassy in the capital Harare said on Wednesday, citing unspecified concerns with the government.

“We have paused routine visa services in Harare while we address concerns with the Government of Zimbabwe,” the embassy said in a post on X. It said the move was not a travel ban and that current visas would remain valid.

The government of the Southern African country did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

The pause took effect on August 7, according to a notice on the U.S. State Department’s website, which said it applied to all visa services with the exception of most diplomatic and official visas.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has restricted travel from a number of African countries, saying it is working to prevent visa overstaying and misuse.

Zimbabwe had a visa overstay rate of 10.57% in 2023, according to a U.S. Department of Homeland Security report.

Starting this week, the U.S. will require visa applicants from Zambia and Malawi to pay bonds of up to $15,000 for some visitor visas. The Trump administration has also paused visa processing in Niger.

Harare resident Angella Chirombo said her 18-year-old son had received a scholarship to do his bachelor’s degree at Michigan State University and had been waiting for a visa interview when the pause hit.

“He was supposed to be in school already. I paid for everything else and was waiting for the visa so I could buy tickets,” she told Reuters.

She said other parents were considering booking interviews at other U.S. embassies in Southern Africa, but that she wouldn’t be able to afford the travel.

“Now they are saying we can go to Zambia and Namibia. I don’t even have money right now and I don’t know where to get this money. They are so many students that have been affected.”

Reuters

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Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema has been banned from vising the United Kingdom due to his support for the Palestinian group Hamas and his “kill the Boer” chants.

This was revealed in a letter to Malema by the UK’s Home Office in Pretoria, which provided reasons why he was denied a visa to speak at an event in that country earlier this year.

He could not travel at the time after he was informed in the 11^th hour that the application was still being processed and was encouraged to withdraw it as he would not make engagement on time. However, Malema insisted the application stood and wanted to know the real reasons for the delay.

In a letter dated 17 June 2025, the Home Office informed Malema that he has been banned from entering the UK and future visa applications were likely to be declined unless his behaviour changed. Further, each visa application would be considered on its merits.

Malema was informed that he had no right to appeal this decision and could not take it on review.

The office described Hamas as terrorist organisation and said Malema’s statements were a threat to public safety in that country.

“An application for entry clearance, permission to enter or permission to stay must be refused where the applicant’s presence in the UK is not conducive to the public good because of their conduct, character, associations, or other reasons (including convictions which do not fall within the criminality grounds).

“The non-conducive grounds for refusal or cancellation of entry clearance or permission considers that a person’s presence in the UK may be considered not conducive to the public good if the individual has been involved in unacceptable behaviour, including past or current extremist behaviour,” explained the letter.

The office described it as unacceptable behaviour for individual express views which incited, justified, or glorified terrorism to further their beliefs.

It said the current UK government definition of extremism considered that extremists could incite hatred, erode democratic institutions, social capital and cohesion.

It noted that due to advanced technology, Malema could express his views on social media, but it could not afford to grant him a visa lest he repeated his views on the UK soil.

Malema’s was quoted in the letter for his support of Hamas where defended the organisation’s attack on Israel.

“Additionally, I note that you have made statements calling for the slaughter of white people or hinted that it could be an acceptable option in the future. In 2016, you said that your political party was ‘not calling for the slaughter of white people, at least for now’,” it said.

Malema was further reminded of his case in the Equality Court in February 2022, where it said he told the presiding judge that he could not guarantee calling for the slaughter of white people in the future as he was not a “prophet”.

“Your presence in the UK has been assessed as non-conducive to the public good on the grounds of your conduct, character and associations, which makes it undesirable to grant you entry to the UK.

“I consider that the above statements, notably that your political party would arm a proscribed organisation and other statements you made justifying the actions of proscribed terrorist organisations, means your presence in the UK is not conducive to the public good,” it reads.

The EFF said it was unsurprised that Malema had been denied entry based on political reasons.

It said the letter confirmed that it was untrue that his application could not be processed due to administrative issues when he was set to visit at Cambridge University in May 2025, as initially claimed by the UK government.

“The UK Home Office went as far as extending an apology for what it knew was a political ban that was being hidden under challenges of administration. The UK has declared the commander in chief and president of the EFF an ‘extremist’ whose presence in the UK would not be conducive for the public good.

“This country which has a long history of imperialism and still has the blood of Africans dripping from its hands as its wealth was built on the back of African people, has suggested that all further applications by our president are likely to be denied unless he changes his posture on the issues which characterise him as a revolutionary,” it said in a statement.

The party said the Equality Court had in fact found that the singing of “kill the Boer, kill the farmer” could not be interpreted as a literal call for genocide, but was an expression of liberation heritage. The Constitutional Court further ratified this decision.

“There is no judge of the Equality Court of South Africa who ever posed a question to the President of the EFF challenging him to declare that he will never slaughter white people or make such an utterance, it was in fact the incompetent lawyer of the racist AfriForum Mark Oppenheimer who posed this question.”

It said the conflation of a lawyer and judge by a country as influential as the UK revealed deep-seated illiteracy by the UK and a “peddling of misinformation by a state against South Africa’s judiciary which must be condemned”.

The EFF stated categorically that neither Malema nor EFF would trade its revolutionary beliefs in exchange for a visa, and it would continue to support the oppressed of the world, especially the Palestinian people.

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Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema has been denied a visa to London, with his party describing the move as an administratively orchestrated ban by the British High Commission.

Malema, who was meant to address students at Cambridge University on Saturday, was informed on Wednesday via a letter of regret that his visa would not be processed on time.

According to the EFF, he had been told it would be processed on Wednesday afternoon.

“This is nothing more than an expression of bureaucratic process being used to suppress political dissent and to ban the voices of the EFF from building global solidarity against Western Imperialism,” the party said in a statement.

Malema was invited by the African Society of Cambridge University to address its 11th Annual Cambridge Africa Together Conference, under the theme “The Making of Africa’s Future Presidents”.

“The United Kingdom is not only suppressing academic freedom by essentially banning the president of the EFF from travelling to the country, but is engaged in an open declaration of war against those who dare to stand up to warmongers such as the British monarchy, which has the blood of the people of Kenya whom they brutalized during the Mau Mau rebellion still dripping from their hands.

“This bureaucratic ban is a response to the condemnation by the CIC of blood thirsty murderers such as former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who destroyed Iraq under the guise of looking for non-existent weapons of mass destruction,” it said.

The party said that the British bureaucracy needed to be reminded that their monarchy still owed the world a huge debt for the crimes it committed against humanity through colonialism.

It said that one the first visits Malema was going to make while in the UK was to the grave of “Elizabeth Windsor, to confirm that the woman who was at the centre of the pain inflicted on Africa and her people, was indeed departed from this world and that our people can find justice and peace through her departure”.

The party thanked the students of Cambridge for recognising the voice of Malema, saying it would continue to build relations with all those who appreciated the message of the EFF domestically and internationally.

According to a letter sent to EFF deputy president Godrich Gardee from the UK’s High Commissioner to South Africa, Antony Phillipson, the UK Home Office was unable to process the application in time owing to the necessary steps required to consider visa applications and the timing of some recent UK Bank Holidays.

“I recognise that this will be deeply disappointing, especially as the delegation applied in
advance and some paid for priority service. I would like to assure you that I have taken a
personal interest in this issue and have been in regular communication with relevant Home
Office officials about this case including over the last week and this morning.

“I am afraid, though, that I have no means of intervening in the decision-making process itself which is solely a matter for the Home Office,” the letter reads.

Phillipson said that seeing the visit was to attend the Cambridge event and it was no longer possible, if the delegation withdrew its application, the Home Office would fully refund all application fees incurred, including for priority services.

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Tourism Minister Patricia de Lille was beaming with excitement and pride at the Cape Town International Airport this weekend when she welcomed the first group of Chinese tourists who arrived through the new digital Trusted Tour Operator Scheme visa initiative.

These were the first 15 tourists from China who arrived in the country with a tour guide only a few days after their visas were processed through the new system and De Lille said this was proof how seamless the new system was.

“This was an exciting moment in this ground-breaking initiative where the TTOS is providing a faster and more seamless process for visas for travellers from India and China,” said the minister.

The two Asian countries have been identified as the target market to lure tourists to the country as the tourism industry has been picking up since the devastating Covid-19 pandemic.

The first phase of the new system, which allows the application of visas digitally for individuals and groups by tour operators was launched earlier this month.

The minister said her department together with home affairs worked tirelessly for the swift implementation of the new and improved visa initiative.

The initiative came to fruition after an inter-ministerial committee comprising the two departments, the State Security Agency and Operation Vulindlela in the Presidency was established to tackle visa issues.

The system kicked into gear earlier this month with 65 tour operators from South Africa, India and China, staring to process visas.

De Lille said South Africa only receives 41,600 arrivals from India and 79,700 from China, a minor share of the country’s total arrivals for 2024 which stood at 8.9million total international arrivals.

“The TTOS is a massive win for the tourism and business events sector and the Department of Tourism will use the new visa initiatives as enablers to grow tourism arrivals to South Africa, which will in turn drive inclusive economic growth and job creation,” said the minister.

She said through targeted outreach engagements in India and China, the department has also been sharing the developments of the TTOS, the Electronic Travel Authorisation and Digital Nomad Visas with the two markets.

This was to ensure that more tour operators registered and used these new and enhanced visa processes.

“We are extremely excited about these visa developments and what it means for the growth of the tourism sector. We have no doubt that the TTOS will exponentially increase arrivals from India and China which will stimulate demand across the tourism and services sector,” she said.

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In a bid to strengthen bilateral relations, South Africa and Ukraine have made significant progress on a visa-free access agreement to SA for diplomatic service and official passport holders.

However, the deal remains unsigned, pending completion of diplomatic processes.

International Relations Minister Ronald Lamola confirmed the development during a meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart, Andrii Sybiha, in Pretoria on Monday.  

“It is imperative that we manage to identify areas of mutual benefit for both our countries, to take our bilateral relations to another level,” he stated.

This follows a public disagreement between Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber and President Cyril Ramaphosa’s spokesperson, Vincent Magwenya, which unfolded across social media platforms over the weekend.

Regarding the visa free access agreement, Lamola noted: “The signing of the long-awaited agreement on visa waiver for diplomatic service and official passports will follow the diplomatic processes. Once those processes have been concluded, the agreement will then be concluded.”

“But we will always stand firm on the positions that are in line with the policies of the South African government, our Constitution and our foreign policy.

“If we end up not signing, it will be on the basis that is not in line with that. But… [if] it is aligned to what we believe should be included and we will then participate and sign. Just like we did to raise the issue of the participation of Russia to find a solution, we will continue because we see that process in that context.”

Ukraine has also requested reciprocity for ordinary citizens, which SA is considering.

“We have also noted your request for reciprocity with regards to ordinary citizens… We will process this matter through our own internal mechanisms and will be able to give you feedback through diplomatic channels,” Lamola assured.

The meeting also touched on global conflicts, with Lamola emphasising South Africa’s commitment to peaceful resolution. 

“We believe that in this conflict, it is important that all the warring factions are on the table and they can be able to engage. They cannot only meet on the battlefield, because any peaceful resolution will come through diplomatic engagements and peaceful negotiations,” he said.

Schreiber announced that the country had granted visa-free access to SA for Ukrainian holders of diplomatic, official and service passports. 

He expressed pride in this historic move, highlighting Ukraine’s valued alliance with SA, dating back to the country’s struggle against apartheid.

Schreiber went onto to praise Ukraine’s unwavering support, saying: “We continue to see Ukraine as a valued ally, who supported us right from the beginning, from the days of our struggle against apartheid, right through to now.” 

However, Magwenya quickly raised concerns about the timing of the announcement, questioning whether Ramaphosa had formally authorised Schreiber’s signing of the agreement.

Magwenya’s statement sparked speculation about internal government dynamics, as he pointed out that “it is unclear how the minister can announce the signature of an international agreement without prior formal authorisation”. 

South Africa has long been an ally of Russia.

Meanwhile, the EFF has strongly condemned the decision by Schreiber, who is from the DA, to grant the visa-free access. The EFF characterised the agreement as a betrayal of SA’s long-standing relationship with Russia, which was also a fellow member of the Brics alliance. 

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