The Department of International Relations' Clayson Monyela says the UK government will make this announcement officially on Thursday.

He says this follows the engagement between our scientists and their UK counterparts, who were able to share data and scientific evidence that the Beta variant has not been detected in the country for weeks now.

Monyela called the move to have SA on a red list illogical and welcomes the imminent decision to remove SA from the red list.

"South Africa benefits a lot from tourist arrivals from the UK.

"In fact, it's one of our biggest markets for tourism and says I say there is a two-way trade in terms of business that is quite substantial as well, so this is a long-overdue decision.

"The previous decision to retain South Africa on the red list was illogical, unreasonable, was not based on any scientific evidence at all, so the fact that it's now being reviewed is only the right thing to do, and we certainly welcome it."

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