Much like a defendant who pays bail to guarantee a return to court, US visa applicants will pay $250 and undertake to comply with the conditions and validity of the visa that is granted.
Lindela Repatriation Centre alone costs R6 million per month, or R70 million per year, and this is just to detain individuals prior to deportation. Whichever figure one accepts, deporting 69 000 people per year means addressing only a fraction of that population annually.
This risks remaining an endless loop of ineffective, reactive policy that burns public funds without shifting the underlying dynamic.
One year into Leon Schreiber’s tenure as Home Affairs Minister – is real change finally within reach?
Reflections on the first 12 months of Minister Schreiber’s digital reform agenda – what’s worked, what still stalls, and what it means for those navigating South Africa’s immigration system. From smart ID cards for permanent residents to new digital visa schemes for the global creative and events sector, the green shoots of reform are visible. But can momentum be sustained — and does it translate into real accessibility, fairness, and legal certainty?
Every person in the country is entitled to life-saving healthcare. Denying migrants the right to medical care is more than xenophobic; it is unconstitutional. Section 27 of the constitution guarantees the right to access healthcare, regardless of status.
How crimial records and character tests can impact South African visa and permits applications and may affect one’s right to enter or remain in South Africa. Visa application rejected for a criminal record? Was the decision right? Read all about it here in this opinion penned by our CEO and leading expert Claudia Pizzocri.
Both the US and South Africa must invest not only in infrastructure but in human capital. Agents must be trained to understand not only how to detect threats, but how to respect rights. Performance metrics should include not just seizures or interdictions, but fair treatment, procedural integrity and respect for dignity.
Border zones are not places outside the law. They are “stress tests” for democracy and constitutionalism. In South Africa and the United States alike, the challenge is not whether the state can exercise power at the border, but how that power is constrained, overseen and made just.
The Concourt judgment has been rightfully widely celebrated, yet its blanket approach seems to have missed the mark in dealing with several related critical dimensions. The absence of an affirmative action in the restoration process means no choice is afforded to affected individuals. The court’s order plainly directs that “those citizens … are deemed not to have lost their citizenship”. Potential conflicts with foreign nationality laws and complications for those who acquired foreign citizenship based on their ceased SA status are key consequential elements that seem to have been overlooked.
The Constitutional Court of South Africa delivered a landmark unanimous judgment on May 6, 2025, declaring Section 6(1)(A) of the South African Citizenship Act of 1995 invalid. This momentous decision addresses a three-decade injustice that has unknowingly stripped numerous South Africans of their citizenship rights, creating profound generational consequences that will now begin to be remedied.
South African Immigration Policy: Business visa exepert insights/ [Some extracts below. Read the full Opinion as published on Business Day]. As the world has watched US President Donald Trump’s “America First” administration in action, from trade tariffs to the...
On the impeached population register, dissociated citizenry and beyond [Some extracts below. Read the full Opinion as published on Business Day]. Accurate information about the population is vital for the public and private sectors to be able to make effective...