Border Management Authority SA commissioner Mike Masiapato on Sunday revealed that over a 10-day period during Easter nearly 4,000 people were intercepted attempting to enter the country illegally.
Addressing a media briefing, Masiapato said 2,403 of those intercepted did not have any documents at all. Another 1,019 individuals were refused entry for being undesirable and 419 were found inadmissible to enter the country due to various reasons.


“The majority of those arrested without documents were intercepted at the vulnerable segments of the borderline. They were processed, declared undesirable for five years, and were deported. Most of the inadmissible individuals were found with invalid passports, fraudulent visas or just failed to produce relevant documents such as valid yellow fever certificates, especially those travelling from yellow fever endemic countries,” Masiapato said.

“Incrementally, since the first deployment of the border guards, the authority has managed to intercept and stop more than 281,000 individuals who attempted to enter South Africa illegally.”

Security had been strengthened at the borders during this time, with Masiapato saying 400 junior border guards had been deployed at some land ports to “assist in the critical role of sanitising the border environment and ensuring the uninterrupted facilitation of the legitimate movement of people and goods across the ports.`

On a more positive note, the authority said during the Easter period, they observed a reduction in the number of undocumented and or unaccompanied minors arriving at South African ports of entry.

However on March 28, they intercepted about five children at the Beitbridge port of entry, Masiapato said.

They handed them to colleagues from the department of social development who activated the social workers at Musina.

“They later engaged their Zimbabwean counterparts and processed the children back to Zimbabwe to be reconciled with their respective families. Another incident involving a child was at Grobler’s Bridge port of entry where a woman was attempting to exit South Africa to the Democratic Republic of Congo via Botswana.

“The supposed ‘mother’ did not have a passport but was carrying an emergency travel document (ETD) which was issued by the embassy of the DRC and the child was completely undocumented. They were both handed over to colleagues from the department of social development who processed and took them to a place of safety in Limpopo,” he said.
South Africa`s borders were busier this year in comparison to last year.

The authority said they facilitated 1,136,250 travellers across 71 ports of entry in 10 days. In the same period last year, 913 859 travellers were processed  meaning there were over 222 000 more travellers this year. Masiapato said as the norm, OR Tambo International Airport, Lebombo port of entry to Mozambique and Beitbridge port of entry to Zimbabwe remained the top three ports which processed the majority of travellers at 528,042.

“OR Tambo facilitated the most travellers at 217,855, followed by Lebombo at 157 069 and ⁠Beitbridge at 153,118 travellers.”

Many holidaymakers opted for ship cruises this year.

The authority said it noted an increase in the number of holidaymakers boarding cruise ships at Cape Town Harbour bound for various destinations.

“In facilitating the movements across all our modalities, we processed 36,675 private vehicles, 1,893 minibus taxis and 1,309 buses. In terms of air travel, we processed over more than 2,621 aircraft at our various international airports,” the authority said,

“For the sea modality, we processed about 252 vessels across our seaports of which 119 were for crew changes through the off-port limit mechanism. This has to do with the facilitation of crew changes for vessels that have not docked at the port. During the implementation of this plan on people movement, we deployed proactive preventive measures for the speedy detection of non-compliances on the set port protocols,” Masiapato said.

Home affairs minister Aaron Motsoaledi says surveillance drones, speedboats and hand-held biometric devices have been ordered to help manage the country`s porous borders.

South Africa`s land borders cover about 4,700km. Insufficient security and the poor state of fencing make the borders insecure, with foreigners entering illegally and allowing other acts of criminality.Speaking on SABC on Sunday, Motsoaledi said they have employed technology to deal with undocumented foreigners and crime syndicates at borders. “We have ordered 18 drones to be used at the borders, four speedboats and 500 hand-held gadgets that can identify you by your fingerprint,” he said. He was responding to ActionSA`s Funzi Ngobeni on empowering the Border Management Authority.

The question of South Africa`s unprotected borders has been topical for years, with some South Africans losing patience with the government`s slow progress and blaming undocumented foreigners for illegality and “taking jobs”  but the police minister has said foreigners are not the primary source of crime.

Leading up to the May 29 national and provincial elections, political parties have shared their stances on the issue. The EFF wants a borderless Africa and a South Africa with no provinces. Gayton Mackenzie of the PA says “let’s fix our country first before we worry about other countries” and wants the mass deportation of foreigners. The DA has said borders must be secured and illegal immigration stopped.

In 2019, two months before national and provincial elections, then defence minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula said they would use drones and rely more on technology at borders to tackle the influx of undocumented immigrants.

A lack of critical skills is holding back the South African economy but the problem is not being solved fast enough.
The private sector is willing to help government with the visa backlog to ensure that people with critical skills can start working in the country to help grow the economy.
Busi Mavuso, CEO of Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA), says in her weekly newsletter the Department of Home Affairs has a backlog of 74 000 applications for all kinds of visas according to an official quoted by Bloomberg last month.
Many of those are in the scarce skills category and the backlog exists despite concerted efforts by government led by the Operation Vulindlela programme to drive implementation of policy that will substantially improve access to scarce skills visas.
Mavuso says the backlog is staggering, a number in line with the headcount of some of South Africa’s biggest companies. She points out that if those skilled workers suddenly started working in our economy, the impact would be significant.
“The fact that companies cannot fill the positions means they cannot invest and expand. Expansion would enable much further employment, more tax generated and the overall business environment greatly improved.”
One additional job for every critical skill post filled
She says the presidency has estimated that one additional job is created for every skilled position filled. Although companies told Mavuso anecdotally that Home Affairs’ service improved, the backlog remains a problem.
“I highlighted what poor visa policy does to business in the past and the good work that has been done under Operation Vulindlela to overhaul the policy. The presidency has said access to visas is the second biggest constraint on the economy after load shedding.”
The new policies include the introduction of a trusted employer scheme that will allow certain companies to fast-track applications. Home Affairs said in April that it would have the scheme in place within three months.
Mavuso says there has certainly been progress, with application forms published in October. “However, to date no company benefits from the scheme yet and there does not appear to be a clear timeline for when they will.”
Home Affairs also missed deadlines for other visa reforms, including remote working visas to enable so-called “digital nomads” to work from South Africa and visas for founders of start-ups who choose to launch their companies in South Africa, she says.
‘Not all changes are so difficult’
“I appreciate that some policy reforms can be challenging, requiring legislative amendments and changes to regulations in multiple domains. But not all are so difficult. Regulations for remote workers, for example, can be changed simply by revising the immigration regulations, a relatively straightforward process.”
However, she warns, even when improved policy outcomes are delivered, the backlog will still be a problem.
“It appears to be fundamentally administrative, as Home Affairs simply does not have the capacity to process the applications.”
Mavuso says that needs a long-term fix that must be made by the department, with appropriate resourcing to manage the load, but there is clearly a need for a short-term stopgap to get on top of long-outstanding applications.
Business could help, she says. ”The private sector has extensive administrative capacity that could be drawn on to process the backlog. While the procedures to do so would have to be determined and staff capacity will have to be built through some training, the backlog could be resolved in a matter of months.”
The right technology could also be brought in to improve processing, given that Home Affairs computers work at roughly one sixtieth the speed of those in most banks. In much the way that business assisted government with technical skills to resolve infrastructure breakdowns ranging from sewerage treatment plants through to electricity stations, the visas backlog could be tackled through a partnership between business and government. It is certainly a possibility worth exploring, she says.
Clear incentive for private sector to find solution
“Business has a clear incentive to find a solution. The inability to bring in foreign skills risks pushing many companies out of South Africa entirely. We have long marketed ourselves as a “gateway to Africa”, attracting companies to set up their regional headquarters here.
“Yet many companies that did that now encounter extreme frustration bringing in the skills they need to operate. They would have no such problem had they opted instead to set up in Dubai or Mauritius. Operation Vulindlela says that applications for similar visas in Kenya take three months while in Nigeria it is two.”
In addition, analysis by Operation Vulindlela suggests that about 900 000 South Africans emigrated in 2020. Many of them were skilled and therefore freeing up the ability to attract foreign skills is very important to support the economy.
Mavuso says the backlog represents applications made through an arduous process that includes police clearance certificates from every country that applicants previously worked in. About half of the applications Home Affairs does process are rejected. Countless more are never made in the first place because potential applicants are discouraged by the bureaucracy.
“Unsurprisingly, given the delays and difficulty in making an application, the numbers have been declining, with about 3 000 scarce skills applications in 2021 compared to 7 000 in 2017. The policy overhaul proposed by Operation Vulindlela must be delivered urgently.”
Mavuso says the visa chaos is a clear example of good policy thinking failing to be implemented. “Business is willing to work with government to get to the outcomes that would leave everyone better off.”

International Tourism Association’s Fred Duma said the visa backlog was now sitting at more than 95 000 applications. Tourist arrivals in South Africa hit a positive trend, with improvements in the number of visitors spanning 2021 to 2023 - despite the department of home affairs chasing away visitors who have not received visa renewals by 23 February. In a directive issued by home affairs on 21 December, tourists were advised to leave the country by the end of this month, despite admitting a backlog and long turnaround time for visas. International Tourism Association’s Fred Duma said the backlog was now sitting at more than 95 000 applications, “which clearly means no-one will get their visa by the time the minister Aaron Motsoaledi has set”. Duma said this seemed like a deliberate sabotage from the department, “because you have already granted this person a visa and because of your own doing you cannot extend it, despite the promising figures from Stats SA”. “Stats SA clearly indicated an increase in visitors since Covid. At just more than eight million tourists last year, there was a notable improvement, where the total tourist arrivals were 17.1% below the pre-pandemic levels, moving from 10.2 million in 2019 to 8.4million in 2023,” he said. Stats SA noted “the December 2023 number (862 460) remains 41.8% lower than the pre-pandemic figure (1.4 million) recorded in 2019”. “Other African countries have shown a notable recovery by exceeding the pre-pandemic levels by 11.9%, from 38 501 tourists in 2019 to 43 093 tourists in 2023. “There is, however, a possibility for a complete recovery for the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) and overseas region, as overseas tourist arrivals have reached 78.5% of 2019’s levels and Sadc has reached 90.2%,” Stats SA said. Southern Africa Tourism Services Association chair Oupa Pilane said home affairs’ irrational decree showed complete disregard for the tourism industry and “will be ruinous at a time when the country desperately needs visitors’ foreign capital”. “South Africa grants short-term visas on arrival to tourists from many countries. But due to astounding levels of ineptitude and incompetence, home affairs regularly fails to process the simple visa extensions in a reasonable time,” he said. “The much-needed ‘swallows’ who visit for up to 180 days are a golden goose for South Africa’s economy and, indeed, its tourism sector, which is the third-highest GDP earner for the country and enjoys a deep and vast supply chain creating job opportunities.” Pilane said it was shameful that home affairs could not execute its simple mandate in issuing visas on time, and “then thinks nothing of imposing arbitrary edicts to eject visitors who planned six-month stays and, in many cases, own property here”. “Tourism is trumpeted as a priority by government, yet this renegade department -and others like the department of transport - appear to be doing their utmost to shackle this critical sector, either with deliberate intent or through staggering ineptitude,” he said. “It is disgraceful to penalise visitors for their inexcusable dysfunction.” The DA shadow minister of home affairs Angel Khanyile said tourists, when entering South Africa, could be issued with a 90-day visa and, subsequently, apply for a 90- day extension if they wish to stay longer. “The country stands to lose millions in lost revenue by not allowing them to extend their visas during the busiest season,” Khanyile said. “The solution to the backlog for the department is simply to avoid dealing with it and remove the responsibility to process extensions.” “The DA has written to the minister of home affairs to request that he issue a new directive which will provide tourist who are in our country on a 90 day visa, awaiting the outcome of their extension, to be granted the right to remain until such a time that the backlog is resolved, or on the basis of their date of departure - depending on which comes first,” she said.

In the past, prior to the amendments to the Immigration Act, it was possible for an illegal foreigner to “legalise” or “regularise” him/herself from within South Africa by making payment of the requisite fine. This is no longer the case and we are constantly encountering foreigners who find themselves illegally in South Africa with little hope of rectifying their situation.
The current dilemma
In many cases, these illegal foreigners elect to depart South Africa and contest any ban issued to them from outside of the country. This involves the submission of an overstay appeal to the Department of Home Affairs (“DHA”). A number of foreigners, however, simply have too much invested in South Africa and are unwilling to depart the country for fear of incurring a ban that may or may not be overturned.
What your options are
Where an illegal foreigner wishes to “legalise” him/herself from within South Africa, he/she must meet certain criteria in order to do so. For the sake of clarity, “legalising” a foreigner entails applying to DHA for authorisation for the foreigner to remain in South Africa whilst submitting a visa application and awaiting the subsequent outcome. The “legalisation” does not provide the foreigner with the rights attributed to the holder of a specific visa until such visa has actually been issued to the foreigner.
How to get started
In order to qualify for “legalisation”, an illegal foreigner must satisfy DHA that: he/she was unable to submit a visa application timeously for reasons beyond his/her control and; that he/she is now in a position to do so. The latter requirement will be met by providing DHA with proof of a completed visa application containing all the requisite documents. The former requirement, however, is slightly more problematic.
The question of what the phrase “for reasons beyond his/her control” refers to is not clearly answered in the Immigration Act, but it is generally accepted that these reasons include medical grounds and errors on the part of DHA. For example, where an Applicant has applied for a visa timeously, but DHA have subsequently lost the application and the foreigner’s visa has expired in the interim. All of this information will need to be provided to DHA in the form of written representations called an authorisation application. Such applications are commonly referred to as “good cause applications” by DHA officials.
Authorisation applications are assessed on a case-by-case basis and there is a degree of discretion applied by DHA in considering whether additional factors should be taken into consideration. A prominent factor taken into consideration will be whether the foreigner in question is married to a South Africa citizen or has South African children.
A Successful application
If such an application is successful, the foreigner will be provided with a Form 20 (also known as a letter of good cause) which authorises the foreigner to submit a visa application by a prescribed date. This authorisation lapses as soon as an outcome is received in the visa application. If the outcome is negative, the foreigner will need to depart South Africa immediately.
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